The Brag #398

METRO THEATRE

WEDNESDAY MARCH 9 ON SALE MONDAY FEBRUARY 14 132 849 or ticketek.com.au

Presented by Michael Coppel I belleandsebastian.com I coppel.com.au

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Peace Music, Niche Productions & Max proudly present soul legends

Peace Music, niche productions, the edge & 3D World present

(20 years live - PERFORMING DE LA SOUL IS DEAD)

12 PIECE STAGE SHOW

THIS WEEK

PROUDLY PRESENTS FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT NICHEPRODUCTIONS.COM.AU BECOME A FAN OF NICHE ON

special support from the us

prince paul

FOLLOW US ON @NICHEPRODUCTION

local support

dizz 1 + DIALECTRIX

AND STAY TUNED FOR MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS VERY SHORTLY

(LIVE AV SHOW)

(OBESE RECORDS)

THUR.10.02.2011 ENMORE THEATRE

Tickets Now on Sale through ticketek.com.au

AND HIS 6 PIECE BAND

FRIDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2011 ENMORE THEATRE

Tickets On Sale Thursday 14th October: enmoretheatre.com.au koolandthegang.comĆŽĆŽÄ“ĆŽĆŽĆŽfacebook.com/pages/Kool-the-GangĆŽĆŽÄ“ĆŽĆŽĆŽpeacemusic.com.auĆŽĆŽÄ“ĆŽĆŽĆŽnicheproductions.com.au

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AN UNMISSABLE NIGHT OF DUBSTEP, UK FUNKY, GARAGE, HOUSE, FUTURE BEATS AND BASS!

A are proud to pr ns, FBI & SP esent

{USA}

NICHE PRODUCTIONS IS PROUD TO WELCOME BACK THE LEGENDARY

NICHE PRODUCTIONS IS PROUD TO PRESENT

ROSKA LORN UK | RINSE RECORDINGS | NUMBERS

USA | BRAINFEEDER

SUPPORT BY

ELEC TRIC EMPIREH MIK A E CORB IC ETT & MISS M

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on – myspace.com/mayerhawthorne – st

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

AND HIS 6 PIECE BAND

SUNDAY 20 FEBRUARY THE BASEMENT TICKETS ON SALE NOW THROUGH THEBASEMENT.COM.AU

HORACE ANDY ASANTE

[JAMAICA/UK]

nicheproductions.com.au | myspace.com/lornnn | roska.co.uk

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DIGITAL MYSTIKZ/ MALA COKI NICHE AND VOID PRESENT FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME

[ UK / DMZ / TEMPA ]

SUPPORT FROM

WEDNESDAY 16TH MARCH METRO THEARE

JAMROCK! SOUND CREW

TICKETS: METROTHEATRE.COM.AU, TICKETEK.COM.AU & ALL TICKETEK OUTLETS /*$)&130%6$5*0/4 $0. "6 Ĺ­ .:41"$& $0. )03"$&"/%:

BY ARRANGEMENT WITH ARTS PROJECTS AUSTRALIA

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[ UK / DMZ / DEEP MEDI MUSIK ]

SYDNEY

SUPPORTS:

SAT.26.FEBRUARY TONE SYDNEY

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NICHE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

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KATO + PRIZE

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rock music news

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on, down and around town. With Nathan Jolly and Cool Thomas

he said she said WITH

MARK SULTAN FROM BBQ (

delicious) Beatles at around five or six via my Dad - I got the feeling he was a big music fan (not musician) who let it slide after marriage.

Both he and my mum had pretty decent taste.

Then my cousin Steve introduced me to Led Zeppelin when I was around six or seven, and I loved it. This led to heavy metal, which began punk and hardcore, etc... Throughout, 50s and 60s, rock’n’roll was a constant.

And now I am a compost heap of musical ‘knowledge’ and looovvvveee.

I listen to almost any form of music, as long as its soul shines - OR its coldness comes from the soul. That in itself has inspired me on many levels to wear my heart on my sleeve, and to never change my underwear.

I

grew up just outside of Montreal, Canada. Winters were cold and money was tight. My first recollection of ‘music’ was when I would attend ‘record parties’ at the local shelter. People of higher social standing would send over their used and

unloved LPs so that we could inevitably boil down the vinyl, scrape the top layer of scum off, drink the toxic bounty and get HIGH. True story: according to my tastebuds, The Rolling Stones are better than The Beatles. I started listening to the aforementioned (fairly

I will be in Australia as myself, Mark Sultan, but in my one-man-band format I’m known by some as ‘BBQ’. Let me tell you about myself. I am 5’11” and kinda ‘husky’.

I am sponsored by three different breakfast cereals and have been in 14 Hollywood movies (I am a favourite of Tom Hanks).

I don’t play sports, because I think they are evil. And I like cooking spaghetti. I will now reuse this on Craigslist and score an octogenarian hand-job.

I have been in many a band: The King Khan & BBQ Show, Almighty Defenders, Mind Controls, Sexareenos… I guess current contemporaries would be friends like Demons Claws, Spits and Black Lips? I play kind of free-form soul/R&B/psych/punk and garage. I have been told my voice is nice.

I expect to have fun in Australia, and can almost guarantee that if you hand over your soul to me as I play, I will do the same. Then we can exchange dreams at night and I can store weird complexes in the crannies of your subconscious.

I think the music scene in general is pretty decent right now. I’ve had the fortune of touring all over this world for a few years, and I have seen a change for the better - at least for music I am more akin to. Kids are discovering good, older shit. They are free of stigmas and are genuinely curious, and treat things I consider to be influences as their great discoveries. And that rules.

Who: Mark Sultan AKA BBQ With: Dead Farmers, The Nugs Where: GOODGOD Small Club When: Thursday February 10

The Drums

PUBLISHERS: Adam Zammit & Rob Furst EDITOR IN CHIEF: Adam Zammit 9552 6333 adam@peergroupmedia.com EDITOR: Steph Harmon steph@thebrag.com 9552 6333 ARTS EDITOR & ASSOCIATE: Dee Jefferson dee@thebrag.com 9552 6333 STAFF WRITER: Jonno Seidler, Caitlin Welsh NEWS CO-ORDINATORS: Nathan Jolly, Cool Thomas, Chris Honnery ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Matt Roden SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Jay Collier, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns, Wesley Nel, Rosette Rouhanna, Patrick Stevenson, Tom Tramonte COVER DESIGN: Sarah Bryant SALES/MARKETING MANAGER: Blake Rayner 0404 304 929 / (02) 9552 6672 blake@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9552 6618 les@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Jessie Pink - (02) 9552 6747 jessie@thebrag.com GIG & CLUB GUIDE CO-ORDINATOR: Conrad Richters - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock) clubguide@thebrag.com (dance) INTERNS: Liz Brown, Rach Seneviratne REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Simon Binns, Joshua Blackman, Mikey Carr, Benjamin Cooper, Oliver Downes, Max Easton, Tony Edwards, Christie Eliezer, Murray Engleheart, Lucy Fokkema, Mike Gee, Andrew Geeves, Thomas Gilmore, Chris Honnery, Nathan Jolly, Alex Lindsay Jones, Amelia Schmidt, Romi Scodellaro, RK, Luke Telford, Alex Young Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this address 153 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037 ph - (02) 9552 6333 fax - (02) 9552 6866

Rat vs Possum

RAT VS POSSUM VS SPOD

Rat vs Possum have the best album cover of last year. It’s got a monkey on it. What more do you want from a band, really? ...Songs? Good stage presence? A cute girl? Squelchy Animal Collective-y rhythms? Well, they have all that stuff too. Also, a monkey on the cover of their album! They play GOODGOD Small Club on Thursday February 17 with Spod, and you should totally come.

PSDJS DO AN ALBUM

Purple Sneakers DJs are set to tear up the home turf with the Sydney leg of the We Mix You Dance Volume 2 national tour. For the Sydney launch, aside from the regular Sneakers crew, you can expect Parades DJs, &Dimes, Mizz Clarence and Radar Radio DJs – and on top of that, you’ve got the live songstress stylings of Grace Woodroofe AND the beatsy stylings of Sydney’s own blogosphere champions, Fishing. You love it.

Last Night @ The Gaelic, Friday February 11.

HIS BICEP’S ON FIRE

Kings Of Leon, the band responsible for a million pre-teens singing about fire in their sex, have had to postpone their March tour ‘til November. The reason being the drummer tore his bicep, in what I can only imagine was an attempt to impress a girl by lifting the back of his truck “wif me bare ‘ands!” Try reading his statement without putting on an accent: “My bum wing needs more time to heal but we’ll be back later this year.” Couldn’t do it, could you?

Architecture In Helsinki

EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Publisher, Editor or Staff of The Brag.

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Stephen Forde : accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121

PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: www.spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204 Win a giveaway? Mail us a stamped and addressed envelope, and we’ll send your prize on over...

8 :: BRAG :: 398 : 07:02:11

Back again this April/May, Groovin’ The Moo has announced another massive lineup, include but not limited to the following acts: AC Slater (USA), Architecture In Helsinki, Art vs Science, The Aston Shuffle, Birds of Tokyo, Bliss n Eso, Cut Copy, Darwin Deez (USA), Datarock (NOR), Drapht, The Drums (USA), The Go! Team (UK), Gotye, Gyroscope, The Holidays, Horrorshow, House Of Pain (USA),The Jezabels, Nina Las Vegas (triple j), Sampology (AV/DJ Set), Tim & Jean, UNKLE Live (UK), Washington, The Wombats (UK). In related news, here are the best three lines/similes from House Of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’: 1) Try to play me out like as if my name was Sega; 2) I got more rhymes than there’s cops that are dunking donuts; 3) I’ll serve your ass like John McEnroe.

C’MON GET HAPPY

Love Parade, that Sydney four-piece who drive around in a van getting up to mischief and mime all their gigs ala The Partridge Family, are launching their EP A Strawberry Situation at Excelsior Hotel, Glebe on February 12 with Nic Dalton & His Gloomchasers, who invented country-tinged psych-pop, and Robert F Cranny, who invented Sarah Blasko.

DEADLINES: Editorial Wednesday 12pm (no extensions) Art Work, Ad Bookings Thursday 12pm (no extensions) Ad Cancellations Tuesday 4pm Published by Cartrage P/L ACN 104026388 All content copyrighted to Cartrage 2003 DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get The Brag? email distribution@furstmedia.com.au or ph 03 9428 3600.

GROOVIN’ THE MOO 2011 LINEUP!

ARCHITECTURE + MODULAR = ALBUM

The members of Architecture In Helsinki didn’t move to California and start a twee-pop cult as we reported earlier (I assume, I don’t keep the back issues. That’s called hoarding), but instead have been holed up recording their fourth album - the fizzy, poppy, boppy, red-cordial-infused Moment Bends. Not only that, but Modular have seen fit to sign them and release the record on April 8. No word yet on whether there will be a TV ad where an animated kitten chants “A.I.H. Ap-ril 8”...

LES FRERES

Remember playing Fur Elise with your sister on the upright piano in your hallway? Well, Les Freres have taken the one family, one piano, four hands schtick to the extreme – and they’ve got more in their repertoire than just the one song. Japanese brothers Moriya and Keito Saito are touring Australia in March, hitting Sydney Town Hall on Monday March 7.

BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 9

rock music news

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on, down and around town. With Nathan Jolly and Cool Thomas

five things WITH

SURF CITY-

drums - with the addition of Jane on violin and Viktor on sax. We also have two accordionists, a trumpet player and whatever else we can get our hands on! I met some of my current band at AIM where I’m studying composition, and I met the rest through friends. I feel the band works because we all have such a variety of musical influences and opinions, that all find a place and seem to merge into one to produce a really groovy sound.

Surficianados Deep Sea Arcade and transTasman hombres Surf City will be cruising down the east coast in this summer heat, playing dates at the beaches and in the city (in keeping with the theme). Deep Sea Arcade’s music suits this weather even more than a beard suits Blake Rayner, and Surf City are bringing back the untarnished bliss of the Beach Boys with an air of Kiwi cheek (see: ‘Crazy Rulers of the World’ and ‘Dickshakers Union’). We have two double passes to give away to each of the bands’ shows in Sydney – February 9 at Beach Road Hotel, February 11 at Oxford Art Factory, February 12 at Mona Vale Hotel and February 13 at Cronulla’s Brass Monkey. To win, name a Deep Sea Arcade member. P.S. Let us know which show you wanna go to!

The Music You Make My most recent recording would be my 4.

EP Authentrickery, recorded at Sebastian

HOLLY THROSBY

SOPHIE HANLON Growing Up Your Crew I was born in England in The backbone of the band consists of 1.

3.

1990 and grew up to the sounds Rob on bass, Seb on guitar and Rosie on that came out of vinyl and BBC Radio 1, but music is in my blood. Mum plays clarinet and dad has always played the guitar.

Most of my childhood memories involve music, but I’d have to say a big one was starring as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. My inspirational music teacher Mrs Day should take the credit for introducing me to the spotlight, I guess. Thanks, Mrs Day! Inspirations My favourite musicians 2. would include amazing blues singers from Bessie Smith and Aretha Franklin to Grace Slick and Patti Smith. I respect female artists with powerful voices and attitudes, who are not afraid to show it! From a lyrical perspective, Leonard Cohen has always been and will always remain a great inspiration for me. I find songwriting really exciting and liberating; there’s just so much to write about. Inspiration can come from anywhere. I want to keep learning and reading and experiencing life, and writing is part of that. I want to ‘feed my head’, as the Door mouse said.

Studios and produced by Cameron Potts (Dead Letter Chorus). The shows will include popular tracks from it, along with a whole load of brand new stuff that’s never been performed! Expect many weird and wonderful things at the shows.

Music, Right Here, Right Now The music scene in Sydney is definitely 5. growing; I love the notion that unknown artists are able to play and get heard! There are so many great artists out there who deserve that.

What: Authentrickery EP is out now Where: The Brass Monkey, Cronulla / The Raval, Surry Hills When: February 10 / February 11

IT’S A HARD KNOCK LIFE

Instead of sitting on Mess and Noise whinging about how there are no good Australian bands anymore, and how Red Eye and Waterfront were the pinnacle of Oz indie-cool, get out of your crumb-filled, wine-stained computer chair and go to OAF Thursday February 17 to see Ballarat’s Gold Fields and Gold Coast’s Bleeding Knees Club. Good, aren’t they? Told you so.

ALL MANKIND

If there’s one gig that all of mankind should be attending, it’s the All Mankind show at The Excelsior Hotel in Surry Hills on Wednesday February 9. Check their awesome clip for ‘Break The Spell’ online, and then catch them at 8pm, as they kick off a night of indie-pop/swampy-rock delight. 4 realz.

All Mankind

KATIE NOONAN & THE CAPTAINS TOUR

Katie Noonan & The Captains have announced a few shows for you in March. If you want to sea some special alternative pop, sail to The Factory Theatre on March 5, or Lizottes in Dee Why on March 18. It will be boatloads of fun. (Sorry.)

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

CHRIS BAILEY RETROSPECTIVE

People bang on about Chris Bailey’s band The Saints having invented punk rock (they didn’t, Oscar Wilde did), but his real crowning glory is ‘Just Like Fire Would’. What a song! What a pun!

Holly Throsby and her band The Hello Tigers are embarking on a huge national tour, spanning three months and about seven-billion km. All this petrol and time is being spent in celebration of Holly’s fourth LP, Team. The album is somewhat of an anachronism; it was recorded in a 19th century church deeply nestled in NSW’s Southern Highlands, and features a whole forest-worth of wooden instruments. The ARIA-winning pop-folkstress has toured with The Tallest Man On Earth, M. Ward, Paul Kelly and Devendra Banhart, proving her worth as a genuine and talented singer songwriter. For a copy of her album and a double pass to see her performing in her hometown of Balmain on March 6 at the Town Hall, tell us the name of her famous mother. We have two packs to give away!

Chris will be playing a retrospective of some of his greatest songs at Sydney’s newest venue (assuming one doesn’t pop up this weekend) The Studio, at Trackdown Studios in the Entertainment Quarter (adjacent Fox), Lang Rd, Moore Park. It’s on February 11, and should be a spot of fun.

TORO Y MOI SECOND SHOW

Mistletone and Future Classic announced a while back that they’d be bringing praised electronicpop outfit Toro Y Moi to Australia for the first time ever – and because everyone got so excited about it, they’re forcing the band to play twice.

The new show is on Tuesday February 22 (the Wednesday Feb 23 one sold out) at GOODGOD Small Club.

THUG LIFE. WHERE’S MY PLECTRUM?

As I write this, the earth is imploding at the thought of hip-hop artists Phatchance & Coptic Soldier releasing a double disc containing two separate acoustic hip-hop EPs. Yup, acoustic hip hop. The release(s) will be launched over a free three-week residency at the OAF (February 11, 18 and 25), and will contain more logical nonstarters than the entire Back To The Future trilogy.

PAPA VS DINOSAURS

AMP SHORTLIST

Alongside the Bowral Tavern Battle of the Bands, the Australian Music Prize is our most prodigious music award.

Seems somebody spiked the oranges at the voting seminar, because this year’s shortlist contains more psychedelia than your uncle Norm’s carpeted van. Cloud Control, The Holidays, Dan Kelly, Richard In Your Mind, Sally Seltmann, Gareth Liddiard, Pikelet, ECSR and Tame Impala are shortlisted and, like the ARIAs, Tame Impala’s album was again referred to as InnerSpeak. That’s what happens when you get Kram to fact-check the script...

SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL MOVES TO SYDNEY SHOWGROUND

Soundwave Festival has announced that it’s moving 2011’s event to the Sydney Showground at Olympic Park, while they perfect the site at Eastern Creek Raceway - with shade structures, more plumbing and a foolproof traffic plan. So if you want to spend a day with Iron Maiden, Queens of the Stone Age, One Day as a Lion, Slayer, Bullet for my Valentine and pretty much a zillion other killer acts, Sydney Showground is where you head on February 27. For those still recovering, that’s where they keep the B.D.O...

Oh Mercy

GOOD GRIEF!

Only time will tell if Great Barrier Grief will go down as the best album title of all time, but here at BRAG we don’t judge an album by its title - nor by its ‘did Ken Done have a stroke?’ album cover. We are super pleased to be presenting Oh Mercy’s show on Friday March 25 at Oxford Art Factory. They’re being all secretive about the support acts, so we’re going to assume it is Area 7, 28 Days and 1200 Techniques. That’ll show ‘em... Tickets from moshtix; album out March 4.

“The way you move your hips / When you’re struttin’ down the street / Oh it makes a man so weak in the knees” MAYER HAWTHORNE 10 :: BRAG :: 398 : 07:02:11

Oh Mercy photo by Louisa Bailey

Dan Kelly

Papa vs Pretty and Brisbane’s The Last Dinosaurs (unless someone extracts DNA from a fossilized mosquito or something) are teaming up for a mammoth double-header Australian tour, taking in all corners of the country and broadening their horizons in every way. We don’t care about that as much as we care that they are playing Oxford Art Factory on April 1, and tickets are available February 10 from Moshtix.

BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 11

dance music news

free stuff

The Coffee Boy Chronicles: A New Beginning. Dance Music News... With Chris Honnery

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

he said she said WITH

MOWGLI (ITALY)

G

I just record by myself in my house. I create tech house music. For my live show, people can expect sexy groovy tech house music, and a lot of energy from the decks.

rowing up, my Dad had a decent vinyl collection of everything from funk to blues, RnB and jazz. This is the sound I had in my house since I was a kid and this has definitely influenced my taste - but no one in my family was a trained musician, so that’s something that I had in me, I guess.

I think the techno music scene its pretty healthy at the moment. There is a lot of musicality in new productions, instead of the loop-based kind of sound that dominated the last few years. New producers want to experiment and break boundaries, which is something that hasn’t really been seen before in a very strict type of music like techno.

I have too many inspirations to name them all, but they’re very much connected to the above. That kind of sound is still my favourite, and I often say that I do dance music just because I can’t sing - otherwise I’d be writing sexy love songs by now! Jokes apart, I guess that when I was a kid I couldn’t understand jazz much, so I preferred when my dad was playing Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding or Aretha Franklin instead of Davis and Coltrane, ‘cos it was more song based, more accessible. My first music love was no doubt rhythm and blues; I knew (and still know) all the lyrics of Otis and Wilson.

With: Playmode, Kato, Bad Ezzy, Charlie Chux, plus post-GVF ultra-secret, ultraspecial guests…

Where: United Colours @ GOODGOD Small Club When: Sat February 12

MUNK

DJ/producer/label head Mathias Modica (a.k.a.

Munk) is about to release a new record on his Gomma label. With a sound that combines everything from indie and techno to disco and house, it’s hard to predict exactly what to expect from the forthcoming Keep My Secret EP. What we can tell you is that it’ll be released on February 11, and will feature remixes from Welcome Stranger (of Rub N Tug), Rory Phillips, and Jacques Renault of the duo Runaway. This EP precedes the forthcoming March release of Modica’s third album, The Bird and The Beat, which is said to feature 11 hotlytipped female singers from around the world, including Lou Hayter from New Young Pony Club.

the first instalment of the band’s ‘Found Things Collection’, a series of three EPs that they will roll out across 2011, and is loosely described as focusing on “soulful and melodic” vibes.

The EP will be available for purchase through Creative Vibes from February 18, while you can catch the lads on Saturday March 26 at The Annandale Hotel along with special guest Tuka, of Thundamentals fame.

JAMES BLAKE

There’s plenty of hype surrounding James Blake right now, especially considering the Englishman is yet to release his debut LP. That’s set to change as of this week, as the man

LOCAL NATIVES LA’s indie-folk dynamos Local Natives have made waves internationally with their amazing release Gorilla Manor. (pause) After being described as a little bit Fleet Foxes, a little bit Arcade Fire, a little bit Vampire Weekend and a little bit Grizzly Bear, they probably decided that Local Natives was a much cuter name than Fleetcade Weekbear. Fervent drumming, soaring harmonies and Afropop guitars are all facets of a sound that just has to be witnessed, rather than talked about… which is good, because they’re playing at The Metro Theatre on February 10. (pause) We have three packs to give away, each containing a double pass and a copy of Gorilla Manor – just tell us what Local Natives were formally known as. And if you don’t win with us, never fear, there are still a few tickets left! (relax)

behind ace UK bass tracks ‘Limit To Your Love’ and ‘The Wilhelm Scream’ will/has drop/ped his eponymous debut album (adjust the tense in accordance to whether you read this before or after the official release date of Monday). Blake’s productions conflate a soulful voice that evokes Jamie Lidell with seriously heavy – “phat” – dubstep beats. But while Lidell’s recent music is all about his love of classic soul, Blake’s sound is more of a combination of dark bass beats that betray his formative experiences at the grime/dubstep club Plastic People. This is sure to be one of the most vaunted albums of the year, so catch the wave early and give it a listen down at your local CD store or on the interweb.

FRIENDLY FIRES DJ SET

Aloe Blacc

ALOE BLACC FOR GOOD VIBES

This Saturday February 12 sees the mammoth Good Vibrations Festival descend on Sydney’s Centennial Park, and Aloe Blacc & The Grand Scheme have been added to the lineup at the eleventh hour. Black’s recent single ‘I Need a Dollar’ has been attracting considerable critical acclaim, not least from BRAG’s own Tony E (who was rewarded for his ‘lifetime dedication’ to the local music scene by snaring this mag’s reviewer’s pass for Playground Weekender, controversially holding off more illustrious rivals.) Blacc will be joining Phoenix, Faithless, Ludacris, Sasha, Erykah Badu, Miike Snow, Friendly Fires, Tim & Jean and more at Good Vibes. In related news, the winners of the Good Vibes Rising competition have also been announced. The initiative invited local Indigenous artists to be part of one of the state festivals by winning the opening set on the Roots Stage. In Sydney that honour has gone to Stunna Set. Stunna Set are a hip hop trio who have already supported the likes of Urthboy, Bone Thugs N Harmony and Diplo, so this is another feather in their already bourgeoning cap - and yet another incentive for you to arrive early on Saturday. Tickets are still on sale!

Cut Copy

Having bolstered his DJ pedigree with the recent release of the Friendly Fires Suck My Deck compilation, Jack Savidge will be representing the English trio in a DJ set at The Civic this Saturday for Adult Disco. The three band members grew up listening to electronic labels like Warp, and Savidge affirms that “I’ve been DJing for longer than Friendly Fires has existed”. Not that his public need any justification of his DJ qualifications; Friendly Fires oversee such parties as The Warehouse Project in Manchester and The Coronet in London, which have hosted DJs like Michael Mayer, Prins Thomas, and Shit Robot, while their productions have been remixed by Justus Köhncke, Aeroplane and Joakim. For only $15 post 10pm, this represents a solid kick-on option for Good Vibrations revellers.

JUSTIN VANDERVOLGEN

Picnic returns to GOODGOD Small Club on Saturday March 19 with a headline spot from Justin Vandervolgen. Vandervolgen is the producer and a founding member of !!!, and also releases with Lee Douglas as TBD on the DFA imprint. He’s dropped remixes on Golf Channel, Warp Records and Blackdisco, while his 2009 mix CD, Try To Find Me Vol. 2, garnered praise from many discerning critic types, traversing cuts from the likes of Eric Duncan, Francois K and DJ Shadow, tunes which may or may not get a look in when the V-man makes his Aussie debut. Local jocks Kali, Steele Bonus, DJ Silvio and Andy Webb will also be spinning, with presale tickets available for $20 through Resident Advisor.

LANEOUS & THE FAMILY YAH

Fresh from a series of shows as part of the summer festival circuit (Big Day Out, Peats Ridge et al), Bris-based outfit Laneous & The Family Yah have announced the release of their brand new Scissors EP and some accompanying east coast tour dates. Scissors is

CUT COPY @ PLAYGROUND WEEKENDER

Having finally released their long-awaited Zonoscope album (much to Seidler’s relief), Melbourne dance act Cut Copy have been announced as a late addition to the mammoth Playground Weekender lineup. Hailed by no-less-an authority than In The Mix as “head nodding bliss”, Zonoscope is the follow-up to In Ghost Colours and, in the words of frontman Dan Whitford, “revises the whole palette of what Cut Copy is about.” They’ll be joining headliners like Lamb, Tricky, Kool & the Gang, De La Soul, Kate Nash and Architecture in Helsinki on February 17-20, at Wisemans Ferry.

“I bet when I leave my body for the sky the wait will be worth it” – LOCAL NATIVES, METRO FEB 10 12 :: BRAG :: 398 : 07:02:11

This ! y a d r u t Sa

CENTENNIAL PARK SATURDAY 12 FEBRUARY 18+ only. Valid I.D. must be shown to gain entry.

All tickets include a forward and return FREE bus shuttle service between Central Railway Station and the event.

gvf.com.au

BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 13

free stuff

dance music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... With Chris Honnery

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

five things WITH

MAYER HAWTHORNE

RJ FROM STUNNA SET and were real mentors to us.

The Music You Make Stunna Set isn’t Aussie hip hop or 4.

Indigenous hip hop; our music is something different for the hip hop scene in Aus. We give you a taste of smooth electric crunk-style beats, still sticking to the hard hip hop lyrics, making you want to get on your feet and raise your hands. Stunna Set’s got some fresh new tracks we will be releasing at Good Vibrations, so make sure you get to the Roots stage.

Music, Right Here, Right Now x Hip hop is still a very slow and hard 5. market to get into, especially in Australia.

Growing Up I grew up in a household that was always 1. singing and dancing around the place.

My parents were both performers, so they always had me and my siblings learning and watching them. My uncle David Page (owner of Nikinali Studios) was always giving us confidence, and pushing us not to be shy.

Music and arts were always just something we knew we had to get into eventually.

Inspirations ‘All Eyes On Me’ and ‘Hit Em Up’ by 2.

2Pac are probably the rap songs I remember listening to most. He really spoke about the situations we were getting into - we were taking wrong paths and music was the way

HERCULES AT LOOSE ENDS

Sunday night underground club institution Loose Ends is hosting the official launch party for the brand new Hercules and Love Affair album this Sunday night, February 13 at Phoenix Bar. Kicking off at 10pm, Loose Ends resident Matt Vaughan and friends will be indulging in a night of old-skool New York/Chicago house and disco, throwing in plenty of Hercules tracks and mixes in honour of the New York-based

out for us boys. T.I and Lil Wayne have been influential artists too - also Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Eazy E and, being from a country town like Griffith, country music was always playing around the house.

Your Crew We all knew each other growing up in 3. the same community and hanging out. We would get together make rhymes and beats, but it really wasn’t till 2007 that we formed Stunna Set, and decided to take it more seriously. Our EP Against All Odds came out through Gadigal Music, who helped us work with - and support - acts like Bone Thugs-nHarmony, Chiddy Bang, Parklife, Diplo and Richard from the Herd, who gave us advice collective’s recently released Blue Songs. The album is available through Moshi Moshi/Shock records, and features the likes of Kim Ann Foxman along with live staple Shaun Wright, while Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke sings on ‘Step Up’, before the LP closes with a cover of the Pet Shop Boys’ classic ‘It’s Alright’. Entry is free with cheap drinks and giveaways aplenty, so in the timeless words of Gwen Stefani, “What chu waitin’ for?”

Bag Raiders

Being Indigenous is always a struggle with the mainstream too, but our community has a lot of love for us and really supports us.

We got to do the Yabun Festival recently and worked with some of the best Indigenous acts in the country. Hopefully after this next gig we’ll get out there more, and be closer to doing our first album.

What: Stunna Set are Sydney’s winners of the Good Vibes Rising With: Faithless, Phoenix, Nas & Damien Marley, Sasha, Ludacris, Erykah Badu and more Where: The Roots Stage, Good Vibrations Festival @ Centennial Park When: Saturday February 12

MOWGLI

Italian party boy Mowgli will bring his houseinfused DJ talents to GOODGOD Small Club this Saturday, for the United Colours crew. As the head honcho of Deadfish Audio, Mowgli has served up releases from some of the ‘next-gen’ house producers, namely Solo, Camel and Round Table Knights. He’s also a recognized producer in his own right, having sculpted the anthemic cut ‘London To Paris’; he’s also dropped tracks on Jesse Rose’s Made To Play label, and a brand new EP on This Is Music.

Resident selectors Playmode, Kato, Bad Ezzy and Charlie Chux will also be throwing down, plus there’s talk of some “ultra secret, ultra amazing special guests direct from Good Vibrations” dropping by... Ooooh, aaaah…

On February 19, the Manning Bar will play host to the delightfully random Mayer Hawthorne and his band The County. After wowing Australian audiences at last year’s Days Like This! festival, this singer-producersongwriter-DJ-rapper-multi-instrumentalistmassage-therapist is back to make men croon and ladies swoon. Performing hip hop under the moniker ‘Haircut’, featuring in the Kanye West/Spike Jonze short film We Were Once A Fairytale, and releasing a heartshaped vinyl for his debut single, his diverse CV attests to the fact that Hawthorne isn’t just a throwback to old soul sounds. We have just one double pass to give away for his show; to win it you just gotta tell us the name of his debut album!

I-F & DJ TLR

You’re probably feeling the need to buy a vowel right about now, but that predominantly consonant arrangement spells out two of electronic music’s stalwarts, I-F and DJ TLR. There must be something in the (bong) water over in The Netherlands, because I-F and DJ TLR at the forefront of not just the Dutch electronic music scene, but the world’s.

Both outta The Hague, TLR has done the rounds of Sydney’s underground circuit for a few years, but this will be I-F’s first ever Australian show. Their much-anticipated show is on at Tone this Friday, February 11, presented by Zerohour and Cold Crush. To witness a night of innovative electro, Italodisco and jacking house, tell us what your DJ name would be and why. We have one double pass to give away.

spectrum; Vincenzo has deep house grooves covered, Butch will cater for those looking to up the ante with some techno and Trus’Me is a white boy’s Moodymann. (“Moodymann with a smile” – as in not so moody – being one of the better quotes about him doing the rounds).

Tickets are still available online.

FOUR TET & CARIBOU

Tickets are still available for the Four Tet and Caribou double-header at The Metro on Thursday February 17. Both artists are in town for Playground Weekender, and are fresh off releasing landmark albums earlier in the year.

Canada’s Caribou (formerly ‘Manitoba’), the brainchild of Dan Smith, purportedly set out to create “dance music that sounds like it’s made out of water rather than made out of metallic stuff like most dance music does” with his recent LP, Swim. Having spawned a fresh remix LP that features reworks from James Holden, Junior Boys and Gavin Russom, Swim followed the almost Brian Wilson-esque influences that were apparent on the preceding Caribou album, Andorra, while the latest single ‘Odessa’ garnered crossover success via airplay on radio. Not to be outdone, Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet has followed up his There is Love in You album with serene remixes of The XX, Rocketnumbernine and Bob Holroyd

ILLY

GOOD [V]BRATIONS (BAG RAIDERS))

This Thursday, 3:30pm at First Fleet Park, Circular Quay, Channel V warms up for Saturday’s Good Vibrations Festival with three acts giving a free performance ahead of the weekend’s main event. The lineup is shrouded in mystery, but involves Bag Raiders battling a secret international DJ act, after which an international band will be performing a “guerilla gig”. The press release states that the band are “one of the festival superstars”, brazenly predicting that these music sensations “may just cause a riot; but if anyone asks you, We Started Nothing!” Too late guys, you’re in print now... Those of you desperate to figure out who is performing prior to Thursday should hit www.vmusic.com. au or follow Channel [V] on Facebook or Twitter for more news and clues. And to all you minors, unlike the Good Vibrations festival itself, this is an all ages event so represents the next best thing!

Having taken out #29 in triple j’s ‘Hottest 100’, Melbourne emcee Illy will be playing a series of east coast dates, including a show at Oxford Art Factory on Friday March 4. Illy is touring in support of his second album, The Chase, and will be accompanied by producer and good friend M-Phazes, whose debut album, Good Gracious, saw him exit 2010 with an ARIA Award for ‘Best Urban Album’. Presale tickets are available online at this very instance, if you are so inclined.

SPICE MIDNIGHT CRUISE

Afterhours institution Spice hosts a midnight cruise this Saturday, with the boat departing at midnight from the Star City Casino Wharf. Aside from some of our finest locals, including Matt Aubusson, Schwa and Murat Kilic, the cruise boasts a triumvirate of internationals vying for top billing. Trus’Me, Butch and Vincenzo will each be representing different areas of the club

Jamie Lidell

JAMIE LIDELL @ THE FACTORY

Touring Australia again for the Golden Plains Festival, Jamie Lidell will play a sideshow for Mad Racket at The Factory Theatre in Enmore on Friday March 11. Renowned for his ability improvise in a live environment, Lidell’s most recent LP, Compass, was a return to form following the patchy foray into pop that was Jim (which did lead to a support slot for Sir Elton John incidentally).

Recorded over a short stint in North America, Compass saw Lidell working with an extensive ensemble cast of collaborators including Beck, Feist and Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, an experience he likened to a “daunting banquet” when we spoke last year.

Support comes from Racketeers Jimmi James, Zootie, Ken Cloud and Simon Caldwell.

“Why does the soul hallucinate? I’ve got control. I shift my shape” – LOCAL NATIVES, METRO FEB 10 14 :: BRAG :: 398 : 07:02:11

BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 15

The Music Network

themusicnetwork.com

Industry Music News with Christie Eliezer

AMP ANNOUNCES SHORTLIST… The 6th Australian Music Prize (The Amp) announced its shortlist of local albums that are in the running for the PPCA-donated $30,000 cash. These are: Cloud Control’s Bliss Release, recorded in bedrooms and living rooms in their home base Blue Mountains, The Holidays’ Post Paradise, Dan Kelly’s Dan Kelly’s Dream, Sally Seltmann’s Heart That’s Pounding, Gareth Liddiard’s Strange Tourist, recorded in an isolated mansion thirty minutes outside Yass, Pikelet’s Stem, Eddy Current Suppression Ring’s Rush To Relax (which was cut in six hours), Tame Impala’s InnerSpeaker and Richard In Your Mind’s My Volcano. At the Shortlist announcement at the Opera House, Amp Director Scott B. Murphy said they had to choose from 200 entries. “It was a great year for Australian music as anyone can tell from the strength of our sixth shortlist.” The winner is announced on March 3.

THINGS WE HEAR * Split City! The White Stripes announced they’d come to the end of The White Stripes

* Is Slipknot/Stone Sour vocalist Corey Taylor the new singer for Velvet Revolver? When asked, he replied “To be continued!” and laughed. * The 80 participants of Bikram Yoga in Adelaide were somewhat disconcerted when Sting arrived alone for a session. * When the music industry’s grants scheme The Seed makes its announcement this week, expect it to announce a new category for funding... * On the eve of dates in the US and UK, Brisbane indie/thrash/punk two-piece DZ have changed their name to DZ DEATHRAYS (spelled all in capitals), to avoid confusion with American dubstep DJ, DZ.

…AND GUDINSKI OPINES At the announcement at the Sydney Opera House, Michael Gudinski urged ARIA to remove “irrelevant people” from making decisions about this year’s ARIA awards, and asked the wider music industry to help elevate it to its past glories. This column’s suggestion: let awards producer Mark Pope have a free hand, and keep out the TV busybodies from making creative decisions and trying to turn it into Idol-lite.

ARCHITECTURE JOIN MODULAR Modular signed Architecture In Helsinki and will release their Moment Bends album on April 8. It gets an overseas release a month later on Cooperative/Downtown Records. The CD, recorded over two years in their studio space Buckingham Palace, is described as “equal parts Italia 1982, California 1979 and Melbourne 2011”.

NEW HOST FOR TRIPLE J LUNCH triple j has moved 23-year-old Lewi McKirdy from hosting Weekend Lunch to weekday Lunch, from February 28. He replaces Vijay Khurana, who presents his last show three days before, after five years on the chair. The one time Sydney harbour cruise commentator is moving to Cambodia to train staff in research and production, at a not-for-profit radio station in Phnom Penh.

Life lines Expecting: Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and wife, Australian musician Brody Dalle, their second child, due August 11.

Expecting: Taasha Coates, singer with Adelaide’s The Audreys, in early July.

Injured: The Sun in London reported that Neon Trees singer Tyler Glenn smashed his teeth after falling off the stage during a show in Holland. But despite bleeding, the paper said, he jumped back on and kept singing.

In Court: Bruno Mars will plead guilty to possessing coke backstage after a Las Vegas show - in return for getting a $2,000 fine, a year’s probation and 200 hours of community service.

In Court: Charges against visiting US R&B singer Mario Norman of assaulting NSW MP Paul Gibson have been withdrawn. Norman was accused of attacking the 66-year-old at a McDonalds restaurant in Thornleigh, in Sydney’s north west, on June 27. Norman told police that Gibson had run over his foot in the car park with his car.

Died: British composer John Barry, 77, who wrote the James Bond theme songs as well as for Dances With Wolves, Out of Africa and Born Free.

Died: Gladys Horton, a co-founder of the Marvelettes, whose ‘Please Mr. Postman’ gave Motown its first #1. She was 66, and passed away after a stroke.

16 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

the road; after five years, Brisbane’s Yves Klein Blue “grew up and apart,” especially in the last six months; Perth’s Capital City play their final show on March 5, after two albums, two EPs, five drummers and ten years of playing.

* Justice Crew’s single ‘Friday to Sunday’ has gone gold, like their debut. Empire of the Sun’s Walking On A Dream album is

LAWSUIT #1: HORRORPOPS ACTS ON MATTEL HorrorPops singer Patricia Day is suing Mattel for using her image for its Hard Rock Barbie without permission. It reproduced her 50s-style black hair, heavy eye shadow, deep red lipstick, 50s pencil skirts, arm tattoos and upright tattooed double bass. Mattel had asked permission from Joan Jett, Debbie Harry and Cyndi Lauper for their dolls, but not Day. As a feminist, Day is pissed that her image is subjected to “the erotic male gaze… a vision that runs contrary and antithetical to everything for which Mattel’s Barbie line stands.”

LAWSUIT #2: DIDDY FOR $1 TRILLION! Valerie Joyce Wilson Turks filed a suit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, demanding nearly $1 trillion in child support and lost wages. She says Combs date-raped her 24 years ago, and they have a son Cornelius D. Wilson.

He then came back 18 years later with his ex-girlfriend Kim Porter and 1991 LAPD assault victim Rodney King and sexually abused her children. And, oh, they were also apparently responsible for knocking down the World Trade Center…

VALE BRUCE JACKSON A founding father of Australia’s concert audio and lighting sector, Bruce Jackson, died in a plane crash in Nevada, USA. He was in his early 60s. His technology skills, which saw him run a pirate radio station as a schoolboy, led to him setting up audio and lighting production hire company J&S Research Electronics with Phillip Story in 1968, later shortened to Jands (JandS). Jackson moved to America and became sound engineer for Elvis Presley (helping to create the first hanging sound system), Bruce Springsteen (wiring their instruments to get better sounds) and Barbra Streisand. Jackson returned to live in Sydney ten years ago. Said audio industry commentator Julius Grafton, “He was truly a genius, a real visionary who was the archetypal good Aussie bloke.”

COUNTRY AWARDS BUNGLE INVESTIGATED The Country Music Association of Australia is so mortified with the mix-up at its music awards in Tamworth that it has initiated an investigation. Lee Kernaghan was initially announced as winning Album of the Year, but the next day, the CMAA admitted it should have gone to Graeme Connors. It has appointed former police prosecutor Ian Burkinshaw to lead the investigation (his team reportedly will have two more people with law credentials) “to identify how the error occurred, and to provide advice to assist us in ensuring it never happens again,” said CMAA chairman Rod Laing. One early explanation was that the envelope which announced Kernaghan as winning Best Selling Album was given to the hosts to read at the wrong time.

‘GOOD VIBES RISING’ WINNERS ANNOUNCED Four indigenous acts will perform at Good Vibrations over the next few weeks, courtesy of APRA and promoter Jam Music. They’ll play with the likes of Koolism, Erykah Badu, Fat Freddy’s Drop, NAS & Damian Marley and Ludacris. Hip hop group Stunna Set

will play the Sydney show (Feb 12), Briggs, who’s signed to the Hilltop Hoods’ label plays Melbourne (Feb 13), dub and dancehall sub bass Dubmarine on at the Gold Coast (Feb 19) and Black Poet in Perth (Feb 20).

NEW SIGNING #1: SHOCK BITES CHOCOLATE CAKE Shock has signed My Friend The Chocolate Cake. As the band celebrates its 21st year together, it has a new single ‘25 Stations’ out on February 11, with Melbourne and Sydney shows in March. An album is being prepped.

NEW SIGNING #2: SUPAFEST AND RABBITOHS Both Supafest and the Rabbitohs appeal to

gold in Germany. * Moby woke at his Californian house to find a drug-addled intruder in his lounge room. When he refused to leave, Moby gave him a sweatshirt, and money for breakfast. * Fueds ahoy! Daniel Merriweather challenged Kid Cudi to a biffo, accusing him of acting tough in a New York nightclub only because his security was around; John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon branded Jay-Z a “parody, he’s just nonsense,” and said that twice he’s played at the same time at festivals and drawn crowds away; Ciara hit out at 50 Cent who, after visiting the Playboy Mansion, decided to become a pimp, asking “Are there any strong potential hoes on tweeter right now?” * Word from New Zealand is that Scribe blew a lot of his dough on gambling and drugs, and that a pawnbroker to whom he owed NZ$5500 has sold off four of the 11 platinum awards he was given as security.

Scribe says he’s back on track, but his wife and two kids have left him; they moved to Australia during the wild days.

the same urban demographic… so both will cross-promote each other’s events, and have branded merchandising. Supafest performers Snoop Dogg, Nelly and Taio Cruz will get involved in the Rabbitohs’ ‘South Cares’ community programs, focussing mainly on indigenous and multicultural kids, and visit them when they tour.

NEW SIGNING #3: CUTTERS ADD TWO Cut Copy’s boutique label Cutters Records signed Nile Delta and Das Mot. Nile Delta is Joel Dickson, ex-Riot In Belgium and currently in Cutters’ house-disco-duo Voltage.

Das Moth is the alias of Tokyo-based Tim Sullivan, formerly of Damn Arms.

› THE MUSIC NETWORK TOP 40 The top 40 for 2010 TW TW TI HP ARTIST

TRACK

LABEL

1

1

5

1 WYNTER GORDON

DIRTY TALK

NEON/WMA

2

6

7

2 ALEXIS JORDAN

HAPPINESS

SME

3

4

7

2 DAVID GUETTA FT. RIHANNA

WHO’S THAT CHICK?

VIR/EMI

4

2

8

1 CHRIS BROWN

YEAH 3X

SME

5

7

5

5 ENRIQUE IGLESIAS FT. LUDACRIS

TONIGHT (I’M LOVING YOU)

INT/UMA

6

8

5

6 KATY PERRY

E.T.

CAP/EMI

7

9 10 3 NEON TREES

ANIMAL

MERC/UMA

8

3

3 BIRDS OF TOKYO

WILD AT HEART

CAP/EMI

9 USHER

MORE

SME

10 5 10 1 BRUNO MARS

GRENADE

ATL/WMA

11 18 3 11 RIHANNA 12 10 3 10 BRITNEY SPEARS

S&M

DEF/UMA

HOLD IT AGAINST ME

SME

9

9 15 4

13 11 9

WHO’S THAT GIRL?

SME

14 12 10 1 PINK

4 GUY SEBASTIAN FT. EVE

F**KIN’ PERFECT

SME

15 17 8 15 MARTIN SOLVEIG FT. DRAGONETTE

HELLO

HUS/UMA

16 14 9

SING

WB/WMA

FIREWORK

CAP/EMI

6 MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE

17 13 13 1 KATY PERRY 18 21 4 18 AVRIL LAVIGNE

WHAT THE HELL

SME

19 20

TURN AROUND (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)

ATL/WMA

20 19 14 1 PINK

RAISE YOUR GLASS

SME

21 22 14 17 JAMES BLUNT

STAY THE NIGHT

ATUK/WMA

JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH

INT/UMA

22

NEW

8 19 FLO RIDA

1 22 THE BLACK EYED PEAS

23 34 3 23 FAR EAST MOVEMENT FT. RYAN TEDDER

ROCKETEER

INT/UMA

24 27 5 24 AFROJACK FT. EVA SIMONS

TAKE OVER CONTROL

HUS/UMA SME

25 31 18 2 KINGS OF LEON

RADIOACTIVE

26 24 5 24 LINKIN PARK

BURNING IN THE SKIES

WB/WMA

27 16 7

FADED WHITE DRESS

SME

9 AMY MEREDITH

28 30 20 1 BRUNO MARS

JUST THE WAY YOU ARE

ATL/WMA

29 25 5 25 KANYE WEST

ALL OF THE LIGHTS

DEF/UMA

30 23 13 3 KE$HA

WE R WHO WE R

SME

31 53

I’D DO ANYTHING (SOLDIER’S LAMENT) JAR/MGM

3 31 JOHN BUTLER TRIO

32 40 18 14 ADAM LAMBERT

FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT SME

33 28 28 8 BIRDS OF TOKYO

PLANS

CAP/EMI

34 38 16 23 LIFEHOUSE

ALL IN

GEF/UMA

35 35 11 10 GOOD CHARLOTTE

SEX ON THE RADIO

CAP/EMI

36 32 17 14 TRAIN

SAVE ME, SAN FRANCISCO

SME

37 29 10 22 KINGS OF LEON

PYRO

SME

38 33 14 3 ENRIQUE IGLESIAS FT. NICOLE SCHERZINGER

HEARTBEAT

INT/UMA

39 44 8 39 SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA FT. TINIE TEMPAH

MIAMI 2 IBIZA

CAP/EMI

40 37 25 1 TAIO CRUZ

DYNAMITE

ISL/UMA

themusicnetwork.com

When have you had enough?

When you get a little loud?

When you’re on your ďŹ fth shot?

When you fall down?

When you let down someone you love? www.whentosaywhen.com.au Call the Alcohol and Drug Information Service: 02 9361 8000 or 1 800 422 599 (outside Sydney)

BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 17

E

ver tried to initiate a style among your social group? For instance, did you get an undercut five years ago, before it was legit to look like an idiot? It’s never easy starting a trend... “I remember when we were first making records, when we first talked about putting down a four-to-thefloor beat … We felt at the time you had to say ‘disco’ under your breath, because it was still such a bad word.” I’m talking to Nic Offer about the inception of his eight-piece, !!!. Pronounced “Chk Chk Chk” (or any other three-syllable percussive sound), the group was born fourteen years ago in Sacramento, California - well before the disco-punk revival had made cheesy vocals and four-to-the-floor beats cool again. As we talk - on the eve of the Australian tour that sees the band sweating it in Sydney this week - Offer is walking home from a grocery store, on a freezing afternoon in New York.

“I think we were just kind of first to catch the [disco] wave - it was just one of those things that was bound to happen,” he muses. “When we started out, I had very high art, artistic ideals; I was definitely thinking ‘this is going to be the sound of the future, this is going to be what happens.’ And you know, in a lot of ways it was.” In fact, the infectiously energetic live dance act has been credited as the popular instigators of the disco revival - although Offer is a bit more reticent to claim that particular title… “I’m not really sure. I can’t really puff out my own ego and figure it out - I just kinda leave it be,” he says. “[But] when you check the dates on the records, I guess ours were first.” !!!’s self-titled debut album came out in 2001 to much critical acclaim but little commercial

full set played by an eight-piece, on a touring schedule which is verifiably out of control. So what does Offer eat before a set? He replies with a wry chuckle. “I learnt that the hard way.

There’s definitely been some times where they give you a great meal – you know some venues you play, they hook you up great – but then you have to go up on stage after that and, yes, that’s a disaster,” he laughs. “I try to keep it light before the show.” success; the big win for the band was their subsequent signing to Warp Records, a transcontinental label globally regarded as a tastemaker, particularly when it comes to beats. Two records followed, Louden Up Now and Myth Takes, both crammed with hits like ‘Heart Of Hearts’ and ‘Hello? Is This Thing On?’, which saw the band step up from critical to commercial success. !!!’s fourth and latest album, Strange Weather, Isn’t It? was released in August of last year. The lead single was the brooding, down-tempo ‘AM/FM’, which harks back to the experimental groove of Isaac Hayes circa 1972. Offer is playfully coy when talking about the track – after all, the leading single was a peculiar change of pace for a band known for packing dance floors. “It was the record company’s choice, and I think that maybe because they’re English and [that track] feels a bit ‘baggy’, you know, a bit more like a Happy Mondays track - and I think people there like that kinda thing,” he chuckles. “I choose the single by whatever people tell me is the single… I think the other songs have been bigger hits.”

But the band are holding their feet to the fire with ‘AM/FM’, daring to open their sets with it. “Well it’s interesting, because we often

open with ‘AM/FM’, and it is a slow burner…

Other songs we open with just kinda sockem… but that one sets this mood, and then we take it up from there,” he explains. “It’s kinda fun to do it that way.”

Of course, there are plenty of tracks from Strange Weather that hark back to their dancefloor hits of yore. ‘Jamie My Intentions Are Bass’ features a particularly boss film clip that was directed by New York-based Saman Keshavarz (who won the SXSW Best Music Video award in 2010, for Cinnamon Chaser’s ‘Luv Deluxe’). Keshavarz shot the clip as a P.O.V., with Offer and other members of the band parading around what seems to be a porn set. “It was pretty much his vision,” says Offer. “I made my suggestions, but the thing I’ve found with videos is that they’re just going to tell different stories than you would tell, so it’s best to just kinda get out of the way. But he was open [to ideas], and that’s why we kinda went with him - because he had a lot of ideas, but was free and open to others.”

When I ask what’s in his grocery bags, Offer tells me he went to the health food store. “I just got kind of healthy stuff there.” With his energy on stage well and truly off the chart, I’m not surprised he makes an effort to stay fit. It’s not easy to dance and shimmy to a

And what about his personal fitness regime?

“I just run,” he replies. “I honestly don’t know how far. I keep meaning to check.” After some further enquiries, it’s decided that if Offer runs, on average, for 30 minutes a day at a fairly leisurely pace, then he probably runs 6km. It’s an answer that satisfies everyone, and gives BRAG a standing start on our long-awaited Rock And Disco Stars’ Fitness Tips special edition. (Suffice to say, Lemmy’s patented ‘Drink a bottle of Jack and don’t be a pussy’ is at #1 – and whatever Dino Cazares is doing will probably come in last.) !!! brought a slimmed-down, seven-piece lineup to Sydney for their headline spot at Laneway Festival, and their coming sideshow with World’s End Press on Wednesday. Not too many hints as to what’s in store, but Offer tells me the set may involve a cover of their favourite Australian song – ‘Jive Talkin’’ by the Bee Gees. Surely that’s worth more than three exclamation marks.

Who: Strange Weather, Isn’t It? is out now on Warp, through Inertia With: World’s End Press and Super Melody Where: The Metro Theatre When: Wednesday February 9

“We took the long and steady road / And from the start you had a heart of gold, you broke the mold” – MAYER HAWTHORNE 18 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

C U T / C O P Y

ZONOSCOPE N E W

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“Cut Copy will be changing the face of music faster than you can say ‘Kanye’...” - NME c u t c o p y s t o r e . n e t

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BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 19

Four Tet Sound Techniques By Tyson Wray

“A

ustralia always seems to be so far away,” Kieren Hebden laughs. As Four Tet, the UK based artist has spent the last decade creating some of the most intricate, complex and inventive electronic music around. In January 2010 he released his seventh LP, There Is Love In You. It was his most critically acclaimed and well-received album, and he’s been touring it for over a year. “This final burst of shows in Australia and New Zealand will be the last bit of touring connected to the album that I’ll do,” he says. “I’m really, really looking forward to it”.

On There Is Love, the fundamentals of Four Tet’s music are implemented in such diverse ways as to make a sound that’s truly unique. “People associate electronic music with synthesisers and drum machines and all that, but that’s not really my realm,” he explains. “My interest in electronic music is more about editing and testing new things; taking a sound that could be a recording of anything, and manipulating it to the point where it’s the sound that I need... slowing it down, speeding it up, reversing it or putting echoes throughout it. All of my music is made from the editing of sounds.”

Underpinning Hebden’s status as one of modern day’s most meticulous artists is his

widely renowned live performances, which encompass a lifetime of musical influences that are constantly evolving. He tells me that, for him, there’s a careful dichotomy between production and performance. “The production side of things is the more technical side [through which] I can make finished pieces of music that people can listen to. As a performer, it’s a more creative side… I really enjoy both sides – they allow me to fully realise just what it is that I’m doing.”

One of the influences behind There Is Love In You was a side-project Hebden was involved in with an American jazz drummer, Steve Reid; the pair released Tongues in 2007. “It felt as if I’d entered a new realm in some way, using real-time improvisation with [the] samplers and instruments that had been my focus for so long. I feel very comfortable in that area. I’ve also been DJing quite a lot over the last couple of years, learning about playing to a crowd and reacting to the audience responses,” he explains. “I think what I’m doing now is trying to combine these two things; trying to creating a communal experience that you can have from a DJ set, and also trying to bring in the elements of improvisation. Making up new ideas on the spot and trying to connect with the people in front of me. If the audience is reacting extremely well to something, then I want to be

able to extend that idea there and then, and communicate with them in a very clear and direct way.”

“It’s something different night by night, so I’m expecting a bit of everything,” Kieren tells me, of his upcoming Australian tour. “I’m expecting there to be nights where everyone is completely drunk and they have no idea what’s going on and they’re flailing, out of their minds - and I’m expecting there to be nights where it’s super intense and there are people analysing absolutely everything that’s going on musically,” he laughs. “I think that’s the thing that I like most [about touring].

In the end you leave with many different experiences, after playing for many different crowds.

“People seem to be really excited about the tour. I haven’t been there in such a long time, and I’m coming with Caribou who are such a fantastic band,” Hebden continues, gently. “It’s just going to be really nice.”

With: Lamb, Tricky, De La Soul, You Am I, Kate Nash, Caribou and more Where: Playground Weekender @ Wisemans Ferry When: February 17 – 20 More: Metro Theatre on February 17, with Caribou

Purple Sneakers They Mix, We Dance By Mikey Carr stocked with overpriced drinks, they’ve always tried to give punters the chance to let loose.

Who amongst us hasn’t lost a few hours of a Friday night, courtesy of Sneakers? “That’s still happening at Last Night at The Gaelic now,” Tim assures me.

“It’s hard to do though; it really comes down to the venue.

P

urple Sneakers is a phenomenon, and an institution. Starting out as an indie club night with a house party vibe at the historic (and much missed) Abercrombie Hotel, the brand has grown into one of the most successful club nights in Australia, with events in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

All that, and more: the troublesome travelling troupe of the Purple Sneakers DJs, who’ve just released their second instalment of We Mix You Dance – a 46-track compilation that the PSDJs will be taking on a 14 date tour around the country.

M.I.T, aka Tim Poulton, has been involved with the event since it began in May 2005, when Martin Novosel (aka PhDJ) started the night to raise funds for his record label, Boundary Sounds. Working behind the bar when the night started up, and worming his way through to stand behind the decks, M.I.T has a long history with and deep love for Purple Sneakers. In fact he ran the night in its final days at the Gladstone Hotel before Purple Sneakers launched Last Night, a new night with live bands at the Gaelic Theatre.

Having seen it grow from a humble indie party into a nightlife behemoth, he’s very proud of what he and the rest of the Purple Sneakers crew have achieved. “It’s massive now,” Tim says. “There have been a few nights when Sydney would be happening, Melbourne and Canberra would be happening, and Purple Sneakers DJs would be playing somewhere at a festival. That’s thousands of people attending a Purple Sneakers event. It’s become a beast for sure - I’m just glad I don’t run the nights anymore!”

Part of the appeal of Purple Sneakers has always been that laid-back house party vibe.

Rather than feeling like some gangster bar, decked out with a gaudy interior and a fridge

“The Abercrombie gave Sneakers that house party vibe, they really worked with us to achieve that, and now we try and keep that up in all our events even with the way we play. It’s never just a straight indie set, it’s always a party vibe. Like the last time I played, I played Len’s ‘Steal My Sunshine’. That’s the sort of song I expect to hear at a house party.”

Outside of the nostalgic indie party tunes, there’s also always been an emphasis on finding new tracks that haven’t broken through to the mainstream yet, with a desire to support lesser-known artists who deserve attention. “I think that’s the only thing that’s kept it going for so long. It’s not just that it found a niche, but it found a niche that was really accessible to a new crowd of people.

You hear a lot of indie tracks on Nova now, the crossover is just ridiculous - and if you’re in there from the start you can really gain from it,” Tim explains.

It’s an ethos that carries over to the We Mix You Dance releases, which aim to deliver not only tried and true party starters, but some food for thought as well. “We were highlighting a lot of acts that we thought were going to be big, people that need to be known,” he tells me of their latest offering, We Mix You Dance Vol 2. “Not in a pretentious way though, just from a logical point of view.

We try and do that in DJ sets as well, but it’s not as easy - you can lose the crowd that way...”

What: We Mix You Dance Vol. 2 is out now on Boundary Sounds, through Inertia With: Purple Sneakers DJs - M.I.T, PhDJ, BenLucid & more Where: The Gaelic Theatre / Mona Vale Hotel / King Street Hotel, Newcastle When: February 11 / February 19 / February 25

Mayer Hawthorne Ft. DJ Haircut By Leigh Salter

W

hen it comes to his place in the great musical scheme, Mayer Hawthorne seems to be a bit of a realist. According to the man himself, he just makes traditional soul music and wears his influences on his well-tailored sleeve - see: pretty much any of the ‘60s Motown greats. But it’s not all that simple.

Hawthorne is actually the invention of Andrew Cohen, a hip-hop DJ, multi-instrumentalist and former headbanger. The work he’s produced under the Mayer Hawthorne banner, A Strange Arrangement, is a funk-lightly album of dissin’that-ex-girlfriend tunes. Although he’s coy to admit it, Cohen’s alter-ego seems the next logical step for the progression of the Barkley/Ronson school of popularising retro soul.

Cohen’s life took a dramatic turn once he decided to cut a soul record, in the vein of his much loved Detroit-based forefathers. He was signed to Stones Throw records on the strength of his first single ‘Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out’, and the reluctant singer’s fate was sealed - “I only really wanted to be a DJ!” he tells me. As Mayer Hawthorne, the singing career is the newest aspect to Cohen’s life, but the 31-year-old has been performing for crowds as a DJ since his early teens. “Nobody who comes to see a Mayer Hawthorne show even knows I’ve been a DJ my whole life, and that that’s what my first love is,” he explains. “I’m primarily known as a singer now, but it still feels weird to me to be thought of in that way. I always wanted to be known as a DJ.” Although now based in L.A, Cohen grew up in Detroit - the city of soul. “You kinda take it for granted that it’s not like everywhere else, you know?” he says of his hometown. “When I was getting introduced to music, I didn’t realise Detroit was actually the best place in the world for music... I’m unbelievably fortunate to have

had that right on my doorstep.” As a singer, Cohen has been likened to some of the great female soul vocalists due to his extremely high falsetto; he hints his singing style can possibly be traced back to childhood visits to the barbershop.

“My parents would take me to get my haircut, and I would always have a temper tantrum and start screaming at the top of my lungs because I hated it so much. They would buy me a record to keep me occupied, and to take my mind off this trauma,” he laughs. “It really was my parents that got me into singing and collecting records, and that’s also how I got my DJ name – DJ Haircut!” Cohen built up his collection over the course of many haircuts, eventually gaining a deep respect for his parents’ music tastes. “I owe them a lot in terms of educating me about music.”

Cohen’s alter-ego Mayer Hawthorne (named after two streets in the neighbourhood he grew up in) looks set to break him internationally as a soul vocalist - but when asked if his beloved hip hop and DJing will flourish at the same time, Cohen sounds unsure. “Yes… Maybe,” he pauses. “I mean, I still listen to hip hop and pay attention to that scene, but the way I make music as Mayer Hawthorne is quite a bit different to the stuff I grew up with, or DJ with.

I gotta look after my own style now... You know, it’s really not that separate,” he adds. “I started making soul records because I wanted stuff to sample when I play my hip-hop records - it was just simpler doing it that way!”

Who: Mayer Hawthorne & The County Where: Manning Bar, Sydney University When: Saturday February 19

“My hands are blessed to have touched the sun” – LOCAL NATIVES, METRO FEB 10 20 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

Yolanda Be Cool Pa-Panamericano By Bridie Connellan

“Y

olanda, I thought you said you were gonna be cool. Now when you yell at me, it makes me nervous. And when I get nervous, I get scared. And when motherfuckers get scared, that’s when motherfuckers accidentally get shot.” …And when motherfuckers get scared and make a downright catchy tune, motherfuckers accidentally get a #1 hit.

In the warm, sunshiney beams of a Thursday morning, Andrew, aka Sylvester Martinez, is fumbling for his house key, as the roaring grind of Bondi coffee beans all but drowns out our conversation. “I’m just at a bus stop, but I’m right near my place… I’ll just go inside,” he calls, over the sound of sparrows, crockery and general January. “But maybe the birds over here could sing in harmony with the birds where you are.

Now, I’m a little puffed but I’ve got a comfy chair…

Let’s do it.”

As one half of the explosive Australian dance duo Yolanda Be Cool, Martinez has every reason to recline: alongside his compadre Johnson “Durango Slim” Peterson, the Sydneysider has barely had a sit-down for the last two years. As 2010 closed, the pair boasted two ARIA nominations (Best Dance Release and Most Popular Australian Single) and a swag of European #1s courtesy of their perspiring, infectious bop, ‘We No Speak Americano’. But as far as this Bondi-dwelling beat-aficionado is concerned, this kind of hype was completely inaspettato. “Oh god, how could you ever expect this?,” Martinez laughs. “We were actually never trying for anything, it just sort of… happened.

We’ve always liked underground music and so we thought we were similarly under the radar. It’s a funny world, this dance industry.”

direction, so we just released a few tracks with no [visual] identity.”

With various side projects still on the go, a headlining spot at Good Vibrations, and an EP to be released on Sweat It Out! this year, Martinez is quick to assure me that the YBC roots are more humble. “I guess we’ve always had a really big love and passion for techno and Serious Proper Underground Music, but also Johnson has grown up loving hip-hop. It’s really the combination of both,” he explains. “You can’t really be a minimal techno producer in Sydney and get work all the time. We just try to keep the percussion really tight, really serious, but then add a little bit of flavour and fun to keep people dancing. Keeping the girls happy on the dance floor, that’s what it’s about.” Tropical badness indeed.

With: Phoenix, Faithless, Sasha, Nas, Damien Marley, Kelis, Erykah Badu, Miike Snow and more Where: Good Vibrations Festival @ Centennial Park When: Saturday February 12

Even if you don’t think you know the track, you know the track. Even if you speak no Americano, you know the track. “We did two versions actually - a stripped-back melodic, plodding sort of version which was really cool in its original form - but then we caught up with DCUP and added the top line. That’s the thing that took it into another realm of pop.” Party tech madness indeed. “It’s funny, in [Latin America] it’s called ‘Pa-Panamericano’, not ‘We No Speak Americano’, because the ‘pa’ is so popular,” Martinez continues. “It’s odd what different cultures and societies latch onto - whether it’s the Italian element, the horn or the vocals.

How could you ever expect this? It just sort of… happened.

We’ve always liked underground music and so we thought we were similarly under the radar.

Now, it’s no fun playing by yourself in this jungle gym; and amidst remixing the likes of KillaQueenz, Oh Snap and Edu K, having their debut release, ‘Afro Nuts’, spun by Buraka Som Sistema, and collaborating with Fake Blood, MASHED, Miami Horror and Beni, Yolanda Be Cool find themselves, suddenly, quite the it-kids. A glance over testimonials by peers like Ajax, The Aston Shuffle, DJ Yoda, and Round Table Knights reveals exclamation marks and punctuation love, ‘best eva’s and shout-outs for ‘tropical badness’. So as collaboration gurus, how important is the art of teamwork in dance?

“The mix with DCUP was really, really good, because the guy’s an absolute genius - a large part of [WNSA] was his disco-poppy sort of touch,” Martinez explains. “Certainly one benefit of collaborating with other artists is that you can draw upon their skills and strengths. Obviously sampling is another major part, and I think familiarity is key…”

Curiously, the duo have consciously maintained an aura of mystery around their real-life identities.

A bud of mine even managed to blag his way into a party by claiming to be Martinez.

“I guess we don’t really show our faces too often, but we’ve been hanging around clubs for the last sort of two years, so we become more recognisable on the ground,” he says. “Our press shots are rather mysterious though...”

Said photographs usually represent the two with various vinyl, hands, logos, or obstructive objects in front of their faces, a deflective, paparazzi-shy pose that perhaps comments on the anonymity of the electronic musician. “Look, we just have faces for radio, and we’re not very good looking,” laughs Martinez. “Nah, we just used to DJ under a different name and we wanted our music to speak for itself. We also had a change in musical BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 21

Gruff Rhys

Polar Bear Club

A Mild Kleptomaniac By Mike Gee

G

ruff Rhys is a thoughtful kind of character; he articulates his answers in a soft, slow Welsh drawl, working his way through them as he talks. Outside it’s raining, as the winter freeze melts into a murk that has coated his hometown of Cardiff post-Christmas. “It’s a pity the snow has gone. It was a very quiet, stress-free time,” he says. “Usually Wales is kind of tropical, in that the weather doesn’t change. We don’t really have seasons, only slightly warmer rain and slightly colder rain. All the snow this year fucked up a lot of things for people, but on a personal level it was fantastic. It took off the consumerist edge off the stress of this time of the year, so I could just relax.”

Gruff is the lead singer of acclaimed Welsh psychedelic electronic rock outfit Super Furry Animals, now a remarkable 18 years old.

Staring down their 10th album, he’s already contemplating just how that release might turn out - or at least, what it needs to be. “It needs to be completely over the top,” Rhys says. “We need to take our time, make something really special. It’s a unique moment.”

Before that though, there’s other music to finish. Rhys’ third solo album, the truly excellent Hotel Shampoo, is about to join its forerunners - Yr Atal Genhedlaeth (don’t even try to pronounce it) and Candylion. Hotel Shampoo echoes the muse of a man who understands what makes pop music tick: sweet melodies, clever timechanges, winsome lyrics, variety yet coherence. That ever present Rhys smile is there, tempered as usual; summery, yet not too sweet.

Recorded on the Isle of Anglesea in the beautiful Snowdonia region, Hotel Shampoo is a concept album of sorts, bringing to light Gruff’s rather odd obsession: complimentary hotel products. The obsession began a long time ago, when Gruff first started touring.

“The album accidentally became the soundtrack to a hotel made out of shampoo bottles.

Tip Of The Iceberg By Birdie I’d been collecting all this garbage from touring for 13 years,” he says. Yep, you read right; he made a miniature hotel out of little hotel bottles. “I began organising it and putting it in boxes while I was writing songs for the album,” he explains.

“I used some of the product over the years, so I didn’t get to keep all of it,” he continues, just in case anyone out there is concerned about his personal luggage... “I just didn’t expect to be touring for 15 years solid. After a while I began to realise it’s incredibly wasteful, which was when I said I needed to build a monument to that. Now that I’m about to tour again, I’m having to explain to myself that it’s over; no more hotel product.”

Withdrawals? “Absolutely. It’s like trying to stop smoking. See, the problem is that when I’m touring I usually stay on people’s floors, but I’ve never stolen anything from a person’s house. So it’s still unusual and exciting for me to be in a hotel, and once I’m there, the mild-kleptomaniac thing comes over me. I’m dealing with it.

“So while most of the songs do have universal themes, it’s interesting to shed a light on the reality of low-level touring,” he says. “In some ways, all these items which at one stage filled up my house were like a diary.”

Unfortunately, Gruff’s work of art is now lying unloved and unwanted in his record company offices. “It’s upside down. They don’t give a shit about it. It’s in a corner. I didn’t want it in the house so I gave it to them... It’s slightly underwhelming as a structure; it’s more like a dog kennel with space for one person,” he admits. “At least if the shit hit the fan I’d have somewhere to live...”

What: Hotel Shampoo is out now through Popfrenzy

H

ere’s a tip: the best way to work on a new record is to make it not feel like work. Well, so says Emmett Menke, the drummer from Polar Bear Club. With their super-successful second album Chasing Hamburg now behind them, the New York hardcore lads are getting ready to unleash their third LP. They’ll be in Australia this month, sharing a bill with heavyweights like Queens of the Stone Age, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Slash and Primus at Soundwave Festival – but as Menke tells it, perhaps No Sleep Til… would have been more appropriate. “We haven’t had a chance to sleep or get some rest in a while,” he laughs.

“We’ve already got about five songs written, and just countless ideas floating around. So far so good, I guess.”

Adding to the band’s sleeping difficulties would be that, according to Menke, they get their best work done when they write at night. “During the day you wake up in the morning and practice for a bit, and then you get right into it,” he explains, “and the whole thing just ends up feeling like a nine-to-five job almost, like getting up in the morning and going to work for the day. At night it’s much more different and interesting... It’s funny how really good ideas also come to your head at night, too. It’s a lot more relaxed, and the vibe is more electric,” he continues. “Plus, if you’ve spent the whole day doing other stuff and running around, or actually working at a day job, night is when you get to take out all that energy in rehearsal.

It’s like a release at the end of the day – you actually want to play music, rather than making yourself do it.”

But writing aside, the stage is where it’s at for Polar Bear Club at the moment; the band completed almost 20 tours over the last 24

months. “When you enjoy being out on the road as much as us, staying away for even a couple of weeks can feel like forever!” Menke laughs. “I think a lot has happened in a short amount of time for us, but at the same time it feels like an eternity when you look back. The reality of it is that we’ve only been doing this full-time for two years - which is pretty good going since we’ve probably done at least 17 tours in that time. We virtually spend nine months a year on the road.”

That’s pretty much the definition of success for the five-piece. While acknowledging that the music industry can be a world of smoke and mirrors, Menke claims that in most cases, the simple formulas still seem to work. Sometimes.

“If you look at bands like Jimmy Eat World or At The Drive In or Death Cab For Cutie, they’re bands that have been around for a really long time and just continued to do what they do. And they do it well. Success is based on building up a core fanbase, which is what they’ve done,” he explains. “I think if you do the right things and keep doing them long enough, in time people will catch on. Still, it’s not guaranteed and there’s a bit of a chance involved.

“The last five years have been going that way for us, I’m pleased to say. It’s hard to measure success when you’re inside, looking in - [but] if we were standing here two years ago and looking ahead, I would have defined what we are right now as a successful band.”

With: Iron Maiden, Queens Of The Stone Age, Slash, Slayer, Bullet For My Valentine, Gang Of Four and more Where: Soundwave Festival @ Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park (NEW VENUE!) When: Sunday February 27

Foals

The Indie Blues By Amelia Schmidt

S

hungry Foals fan. “When we wrote the last record we were all living together,” Gervers says. “We set up a makeshift studio in the basement and we started recording tracks with a dictaphone, so we could listen to takes and decide what we liked. We were just recording everything… and we also had some loop pedals.”

peaking down the muffled line in a charming British accent, Walter Gervers from Foals seems spritely enough to handle anything - so without much ado, I get straight down to the nitty gritty. What’s the deal with the blue powder in all their latest shots and clips? “Well a few weeks into recording [Total Life Forever], we decided that the colour of the record was going to be International Klein Blue – which is the colour of the powder,” the bassist explains matter-of-factly, apparently under the impression that everyone is a little synaesthetic. “With music, it’s always good to have a colour in mind.”

The lurid blue powder slips through lead singer Yannis’ fingers in the clip for ‘Spanish Sahara’ and is blown to the hot, sweaty LA winds in ‘Miami’. “It just felt blue, I think,” he explains when I ask why not green, or purple. “The first tracks we put down are definitely the more blue tracks on the record. ’Alabaster’ and ‘Black Gold’… there’s kind of a sad element [to them]” Gervers ponders, oblivious to the irony that the two most ‘blue’ tracks would be named after different colours… “Although it’s not necessarily a sad blue,” he continues, thoughtfully. “More like a nostalgic, dark blue… I’m kind of speaking cryptically,” he laughs. “It just felt right.”

The video for ‘Miami’ is of particular interest – surreal, slow motion, glistening and terrifying, it contrasts the icy vibes of the rest of the record.

It was directed by an Australian, too - Dave Ma,

In fact as Gervers tells it, a lot of the tracks on the bonus disc were a direct output of the loop pedals. “With the loops you can infinitely record in your own time, whereas at a studio you’re kind of on the spot and you need to record stuff relatively quickly,” he explains. “There’s definitely stuff in those loops that I prefer to some of the stuff on the actual record.”

the brother of Jono Ma from Lost Valentinos. “He came to us with two different video treatments and said, ‘Right, OK, we can do this - or I’ve got this other idea that’s going to be fucking mental. All I’m going to tell you is that it involves transvestites, bodybuilders and I’m going to shoot it in LA.’ We were like, ‘Oh my God, you’ve got to do it’,” Gervers laughs. “We just left it up to him, and he sent it to us and we were just like, ‘Oh my God, that’s insane and awesome.’”

The clip offers a perspective of Miami that seems nightmarish and foreign - unsurprisingly

so, considering it was made by an Australian for a British band. But that’s part of the flavour of Total Life Forever, and one of Gervers’ favourite aspects of the LP. “I like the idea that the album is kind of un-country-specific,” he remarks. “I don’t like being able to tell where a band is from; if you can relieve that aspect a little bit, I think it makes better music.”

The band made a second CD available with Total Life Forever, one which features uncut material from early recordings and re-workings of songs; rough and alternate versions for the

With a focus on songwriting like that, it’s not surprising to learn that Foals are already in the guts of their next album, which they plan to record on our sunny shores this year with Jono Ma. “We’re actually going to Sydney in January to record some stuff,” Gervers bubbles happily - in fact, the band has been here for a month. “We’re really excited. Hopefully we’ll hit the ground running.”

What: Total Life Forever is out now With: Last Dinosaurs Where: The Enmore Theatre When: Wednesday February 9

“My baby’s got a one track mind / Only shopping bags with expensive tags / My baby’s got a one track mind / And she buys her thrills when my heart unveils” MAYER HAWTHORNE 22 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

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Holly Throsby Join The Team By Romi Scodellaro that.” As a result, Holly still has to figure out which bits of her songs she’ll be singing live.

The instrumentation also follows the same approach: teams of instruments that “kind of flourish up then bubble down again,” as Holly says. But before you get too worried, Holly’s teams are the most marked difference between this release and her last, A Loud Call. In fact, Teams feels like a perfectly natural progression of Holly’s sound, incorporating the delicate lyrics and stunning arrangements of previous releases – and despite the success she enjoyed working with Nashville-based producer Mark Nevers for her last album, she returned to Tony, her producer of albums one and two, for this record.

“Tony literally arrived on my doorstep – he’d been living in Berlin for a couple of years, and he just turned up and we got talking, and there was no decision to be made after that. It just felt like it was the right thing to do,” she explains. “In terms of doing the children’s album, there couldn’t have been a better person to do that with. He’s just a hilarious person, with a hilarious mind.”

H

olly Throsby doesn’t make New Year’s resolutions. “I’m not good at thinking ahead, or five year plans,” she says. “I take it day by day, album by album.” And yet a glance back over 2010 for the sweet Sydney songstress reads like a list of tickedoff accomplishments, the sort of list you might make while overly optimistic at the start of a year. Record a beautiful fourth album in a church: check. Do the same with a children’s album: check. Form a band with other firstladies of Australian music, Sarah Blasko and Sally Seltmann: check. Alright, so it doesn’t look like anyone else’s to-do list, but Holly isn’t quite like anyone else...

I’ve caught Holly on a rare day off, and she’s bubbling with chatter about what she’s been

up to. She’s soon to be touring Australia with her new album, Team, with her band The Hello Tigers. In preparation, she’ll be hiding out in Bega to rehearse. “I can bring my dog and it’ll be a nice little country retreat,” she explains, “But there’ll be work to do. It’ll be a challenge, which is good. We like challenges!”

The main challenge is the fact that with this album, there are a few more of Holly than we’re used to. In fact, the album title relates to the teams created by layers of Holly’s voice.

“Structurally it’s a bit weird, in a way,” says the singer. “The songs are less structured [than previous releases], with little bits of vocals that overlap like crazy. [Producer Tony Dupe] described the vocals as like teams, like one team that does this and one team that does

So, about the children’s album: it sounded like one of those rumours that was just too good to be true, but then along came See! – the sort of kids album that hipster parents, tired of saccharine pop offerings, might be proud to watch their kids bopping along to. Holly tells me it came about because, hanging out with kids a fair bit, she’d been subjected to one too many dodgy children’s albums. “Those awful English ones where people sing ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ in those terrible school teacher voices, with muzak-style music in the background…

AWFUL.” She thought she’d give it a go herself because, why not? Holly will be making a songbook to accompany it; a chord and lyric book, complete with the little comics, like she’s drawn for previous albums. “Just my little dorky drawings,” she says.

Holly took a month’s break between recording See! and Team because, as she explains, laughing, “We didn’t want any animal noises falling into any of the songs or anything...” And after recording those two, Holly headed over

“Some of my friends still tease me about the time when I couldn’t get a job as a dog washer.” to New York to record with Sarah Blasko and Sally Seltmann, something they announced near simultaneously via Twitter last year. It wasn’t entirely out of left field – Sally and Holly went to the same school, and Sarah and Holly have recorded together before – but it was delightfully unexpected. The three formed a band (“We do have a name, but it’s a secret!”) and will be releasing an album sometime late this year. You couldn’t daydream this up! “We made a little promise to one another to not really talk about this at interviews, but I can tell you, it was so much fun. I think the three of us have never really laughed as much as we did in that short period.”

It seems like Holly’s got just about everything happening at the moment – but, she tells me, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. “I went for a job as a dog washer when I was in my twenties,” she says. “They asked what my experience was, and I said, ‘Oh, I’ve always had dogs and I’ve washed them heaps’. The woman was like, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’” She laughs. “Apparently you need to get some really intense training to wash dogs! Some of my friends still tease me about the time when I couldn’t get a job as a dog washer…”

Probably lucky she stuck to what she was good at, then.

With: Team is out February 18, through Spunk Records Where: Balmain Town Hall (album launch) / Brass Monkey, Cronulla / The Annandale Hotel When: Sunday March 6 / Friday May 6 / Saturday May 7

NICHOLAS ROY THURSDAY FEB 17th 9 PM THE BRASS MONKEY, CRONULLA Bookings call (02) 9544 3844 www.brassmonkey.com.au FRIDAY FEB 18th 9 PM THE VANGUARD, NEWTOWN Bookings call (02) 9550 3666 www.thevanguard.com.au SATURDAY FEB 19th 9 PM THE GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL, NEWCASTLE Bookings call (02) 4927 5728 www.thegreatnorthern.com.au

FEATURING SONGS FROM

"...in a shoebox under the bed" IT’S ALL MY FAULT, WALLS, TAXI, EVERYBODY’S TALKING 24 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

Martha Wainwright On Edith Piaf By Oliver Downes

I

n the oft-played musical game of Whose Yards Were Done The Hardest, Edith Piaf must surely come out on top. Parental abandonment, an abject childhood amongst her grandmother’s stable of prostitutes, singing for her supper on the streets of Paris, plentiful failed love affairs, multiple car accidents, substance abuse, and a long, agonising premature death to top it all off.

Indeed, her biography presents a lay-down misère of uncompromising sufferance for art; a life spent at the coalface of reality producing one of the most spectacular pop catalogues of the last century.

There are certainly worse acts to ape. For Martha Wainwright, Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, A Paris: Martha Wainwright’s Piaf Record - her liverecorded 2009 homage to the diminutive French songstress - was as much a welcome respite from her own material as the product of a lifetime love of the Little Sparrow. “My brother introduced me to [Piaf’s] music via my mother’s record collection when I was eight or so,” Martha explains, on the phone from her Brooklyn brownstone ahead of her forthcoming Australian tour. “I was completely excited by her abandon, her reckless abandon in her vocals. She quickly became my favourite singer … I admire her for wearing her heart on her sleeve and for, y’know, destroying herself for her art and for her audience,” she says. “I suppose that she really seems to have given herself over completely to music… Which is kind of amazing.”

fails to convince.) “I love to sing other people’s songs which are often times better crafted than my own. I think it’s a good idea. My songs are so personal that it’s kind of a relief sometimes to sing about something else other than my own exact experience.”

Good news for audiences keen to hear Piaf classics delivered by someone who’s aware of both the act she has to follow, and the transfiguring power of music in hard times. “Even though I did not try and conjure [Piaf] up, before performing the songs or recording the songs in the live performance, she automatically seems to show up in the room anyway, every time,” Martha says. “She’s hard to run away from, and I’m very glad for that.”

What: Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, à Paris: Martha Wainwright’s Piaf Record is out now Where: Lizotte’s, Newcastle / Sydney Opera House When: February 17 & 18 / February 24 More: Womadelaide, with Angus & Julia Stone, Afro Celt Sound System, Joanna Newsom and more @ Botanic Park, Adelaide on March 11-14

Though she shows no sign of wishing to emulate Piaf in that respect, Wainwright has certainly passed through her own share of upheavals in the past twelve months. Having given birth to her first child in late 2009, joy became quickly mingled with anguish after the death of her mother, the late, great Kate McGarrigle, several weeks later. One year on and although the demands of motherhood provide some daily sense of purpose (young Arcangelo [no jokes] is on the verge of crawling, though this remains somewhat difficult for him as “he’s really quite substantial”), grief continues to make its presence felt. For Martha, the catharsis of songwriting follows only gradually. “It’s been pretty hard for me to write, ‘cause I already write pretty depressing songs. After my Mom died, I’d pick up the guitar and it was just too much. Now things are starting to calm a little bit,” she says. “All I really think about as a songwriter is what’s happened to me… [so] that’s obviously what the new stuff seems to be about. Kate, really.”

That personal tragedy would feeding her creative process should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Ms Wainwright’s previous material; she’s never been shy of feeding the grist of life’s downsides into the songwriting mill. Walking aside the long shadow cast by the incomparable talent of her Judy Garland-singing, opera-composing, prima donna brother Rufus, Martha began to cast a pretty lengthy one of her own with the titanic emotional swell of her 2005 self-titled debut. (“She pulls bigger crowds than I do these days,” Rufus remarked at the State Theatre last year.) Making an immediate impact thanks to a pair of lungs capable of turning sultry purrs to an unhinged snarl within the same phrase, her success was soon cemented by the inimitably-titled follow-up I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too (2007), in which the stark confessionals of the first record gave way to more sophisticated imagery and a richer harmonic palette. Through all, drawing something of worth from the dregs of her experience has remained a constant.

“As you get older, you have to be a bit more careful you don’t shit on people all the time.”

“That first record came out of songs I’d written between the ages of 18 and 24, where it’s very much a naval gazing period. So for the second record, although they are just as personal, they’re kind of more couched,” she explains. “I make it a little less obvious, but in truth they’re actually almost just as autobiographical - they’re just more abstract.... [Still], the people who are referenced in the songs certainly know who they are! They recognise themselves for better or for worse, but I thought it would be good not to let anyone else know.” Indeed, Wainwright has learnt the hard way about the pitfalls of throwing her dirty laundry around the public sphere, as it’s hard to control where it lands. “I think that I particularly hurt my father’s feelings by writing ‘Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole’ and telling people it was about him… As you get older, you have to be a bit more careful you don’t shit on people all the time.”

It’s no wonder then that, with the release of Sans Fusils…, Martha found the urge to slip into somebody else’s musical clothing difficult to resist. “I always have sung covers because I’m not terribly prolific,” she says (in a by-now standard claim of songwriting amateurism that always BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 25

0 2 E 8 AIL S C I N Y A UAR R DET V D A R FO B S L G E A F L IS T I N I C S E SP NINGCINEMA E S EE E R SC

ONLY AT THE MOVIES

FEBRUARY 24

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Ghoul Getting It Right By Mikey Carr

“W

e’ve put out a whole bunch of crap over the years,” Ivan Vizintin tells me. The frontman of Sydney band Ghoul is characteristically self-deprecating... “I don’t mind doing that,” he continues, “but in the long run it doesn’t help you, because you’re not refining anything. You’re just going, ‘ok, this is good enough,’ and the next thing might not be great, but it’s good enough, too. I think it’s important to refine things, to be happy with something and to be able to play it in front of people and not feel ashamed of it.” Ivan’s attitude and work ethic is refreshing. Playing in and around Sydney for three years to a loyal base of fans, Ghoul have long been one of the city’s most exciting acts. The combination of Ivan’s stunning, soulful vocals with the band’s playful mix of electronica and guitar-driven pop is mesmerising, and has been likened to everyone from The Smiths to Talking Heads to Antony & The Johnsons. Mention any of this to Ivan though, and he’ll jokingly deride his and the band’s ability, possibly changing the subject to his love of Nickelback…

We’re sitting in the band’s rehearsal/recording space in Surry Hills’ labyrinthine Hibernian House under two roaring fans, in an attempt to escape the heatwave being brought to bear on the city. Ghoul have just recently released their mini-album Dunks, the follow-up to 2008’s Mouthful Of Gold - and they’re currently working on their debut full length, hopefully to be released later this year. Sitting across from me, Ivan is speaking with great enthusiasm, each point accompanied by wild gestures as well as careful consideration. Both facets are as evident in his personality as his music.

“A song is like a pasta sauce: you don’t need to have all this shit in it to make it taste good, all you need is a few key elements and that’s it…”

Dunks took shape over a very long period; the band were working on it for over 18 months, recording almost two albums worth of material that was later culled from the release. “We’re very critical of our work,” Ivan confesses. “Some people might call us perfectionists, but it’s not about perfection - it’s about getting it sounding right. If you’re hearing something in your head and that’s what you want it to be, you ask yourself, ‘How do I get there?’ - and if you’re constantly not getting there, you get frustrated and you want to give up. There were so many points where we almost gave up.

“I remember when we got to September in 2009, and we decided it was done,” he continues.

28 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

“All the songs were like a minute and a half or two minutes, just like ‘Mouthful’, so we thought, ‘great, we’ve done a record, we did it!’ Then I played it to a friend and he told me he thought they were great demos, that they were great ideas to revisit and work on. That was the moment where I was like, fuck, it’s not finished.”

Persevering through multiple incarnations of the release, experimenting with different styles, rewriting songs only to cull them further down the track – it was through this process that the band slowly whittled away the excess, and finally ended up with a finished product they were proud of. The fact that Dunks has come out as a mini-album, running for about 25 minutes, is purely a reflection of the band’s high standards. “We were doubting ourselves a lot; the whole time I was just thinking, ‘I don’t think this should be a full length’. Not in a negative way, but I just didn’t think we were up for making a full length to the quality we wanted to,” Ivan explains.

“If you’re not totally 100% on something, you should probably work on something you are 100% on, and that’s what we did. In the long run I think it was a really good decision because I don’t think we were ready as songwriters, which is a really wanky thing to say, but we weren’t ready for a full length at the time. That’s why we’re working towards one now.”

The painstaking process of finishing Dunks instilled in Ghoul an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses as songwriters, and as a band. “Burke [Reid] mixed the record, and he made a really apt comment when I was talking to him recently,” Ivan tells me. “He said a song is like a pasta sauce: you don’t need to have all this shit in it to make it taste good, all you need is a few key elements and that’s it…

Dunks was a process of us trying to figure out what our strengths and weaknesses were and learning how to play to them. We’re still figuring that out, but we know what we’re doing now - if we want a song to go in a particular direction, we know how to get it there,” he continues. “After going through all this, I’ve found writing music is much easier and much more enjoyable than before.”

A mixture of pop structures and hooks with electronic sounds and textures, Dunks is a truly impressive work. Displaying a well-developed sense of their own sound, as well as an ability to subvert it and surprise you, all the effort the band put in bleeds through the release in the near faultless way it moves from style to style, never wandering too far from the band’s core aesthetic. They say good things come to those who wait, but it turns out they come to those who work hard - simply waiting never achieved a thing.

What: Dunks is out now on Speak N Spell, through Inertia Where: The Metro Theatre When: Monday February 7, with Yeasayer

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arts frontline

free stuff email: freestuff@thebrag.com

arts, theatre and film news... what's goin' on around town and more...

brushstrokes WITH AMY

GEBHARDT (EXIT.COM.AU)

artist and costume wizard Justin Shoulder.

Just watching it makes you feel a degreeor-several cooler. Unsurprisingly, Amy's developing her first feature as we speak…

How has your background/training contributed to your current work?

Studying law gave me an education on critical thought, but was shaping up to be a conservative profession that I couldn’t imagine being satisfied in. After graduating, I started out as a cinematographer. The challenge of photography to depict the emotional inwardness of a character or a scene has always been a great fascination of mine, even quite unconsciously, when I picked up the VHS handycam as a fourteen-year-old and began filming my family’s internal life.

L

ast week Screen Australia launched their YouTube Map My Summer project – a massive online ‘installation’ of short films made by Australians, capturing their summer experience. To get the ball rolling they invited three award-winning young filmmakers to make their own shorts specially for the project: Ariel Kleiman (recently profiled in BRAG for Flickerfest), editor/director Luke Doolan (Animal Kingdom; Miracle Fish) and Amy Gebhardt.

Amy studied arts/law with a major in film, before moving to AFTRS to study directing – but she was already winning awards for her short films and documentaries by the time she graduated in 2007. Her Map My Summer film, Into The Sun, is an exquisite underwater study in slow-motion, starring Sydney performance

In making short films, I consciously set out to work with actors at a more intensive level. I felt confident around the camera, but the characterisation process was a total mystery to me. Training at AFTRS and refining a performance approach was vital in developing my directorial work. What I love about this work is that there will always be more to learn because it is such a multidimensional craft.

What kind of films are you most interested in making right now?

I definitely want to continue working on long form drama and documentary, as they are art forms I love and allow me to collaborate with a range of artists and challenging ideas.

I am also eager to create short form works for a more art-based context, as I see this as a chance to articulate the craft in a more experimental and unexpected way, where less literal ideas can be given air.

to the next level, head over to serialspace.org to download an application form. Deadline is February 28. They’re also calling for applications from peeps interested in staging screen-based events, or running on-site workshops – on anything from tech gear to software, writing, video-jamming, circuit-bending… Get to it.

JURASSIC LOUNGE

We swanned over to the Australian Museum last week for the opening night of Jurassic Lounge, the new arts weekly that combines dinosaur skeletons, live amphibians and stuffed giant wombats with DJs, performance art and booze. The place was packed – from the silent disco on the ground floor to the Amphibian gallery at the top – and our only regret is our decision not to hold the live python (mental note: chose poorly). It’s on every Tuesday this summer, and $15 gets you entry and entertainment from 5.30-9.30pm. Tuesday February 8 features poetry by Candy Royalle, live tunes from Ray Man, and a silent disco courtesy of Snatch & Grab’s DJ Cunningpants; February 15 features Brian Campeau, with rest of lineup TBC. jurassiclounge.com

WE ARE LO-FI

LO-FI Collective, the gallery space above the former Kinselas in Taylor Square, are back after a brief hiatus, to sneak in a few more low-brow treats before summer ends. First cab off the rank is High End Hoodlums, a collection of prints by the Well Dressed Vandals collective, opening Thursday February 10 – followed by Imagine, a showcase of prints presented and printed by Roland DG, using their specialised wide format printing on the Roland ‘VS’ and ‘VersaUV Series’, which allows for metallics, raised gloss, embossing… (Christmas wishlist, tick!).

Head along on Thursday February 17 at 6pm to check out prints by Pudl, Roach, Toko, Dave Foster , Thomas Jackson, Helen Mycroft, Brent Smith, Damian Dlugolecki (work pictured) and more... wearelofi.com.au/collective

SERIAL SPACE 2011

Serial Space is calling for applications from artists interested in their three-week on-site artist residencies, which culminate in a showing/performance of the work. Run by artists for artists, Serial Space are general all-round champs who support hybrid and interdisciplinary art, making up in passion what they lack in funding. So… if you need a three-week window of space and time in which to take your shit 30 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

What was the brief for the Map My Summer project, and how did you arrive at the idea for Into The Sun? It was a totally open brief, to make a film that responds to my idea of Summer. I was immediately drawn to explore how the season affects our spirit and leads us to relate to the world differently. How it opens us up, how we have to unpeel the layers of Winter and Autumn and reveal our skin. How this shedding, and coming into the light, affects us emotionally.

I collaborated with an amazing performance artist, Justin Shoulder, to create a short dance piece underwater, which explores our innate magnetism to the sun.

How did you and Justin connect?

I fell in love with Justin’s work and sensitivity when I first saw him inhabit some of his totally sublime creatures, which he creates out of a whole spectrum of different materials.

I thought his creatures were so innately cinematic that I asked if I could film him. We first worked together making a film from one of his shows, called V, which is about to screen at the upcoming Adelaide Film Festival.

Tell us about your feature!

It’s a dark tale set in country Victoria, when a travelling circus comes to town and sets alight the tensions that have been long seething under the surface of small town life.

T

his American remake of Francis Veber’s popular French comedy Le dîner de cons (aka The Dinner Game) is directed by Jay Roach of the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents franchises, and stars comedy stalwarts Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell, doing what they do best: in Rudd’s case, it’s playing nice guys and being the straight guy; in Carrell’s it’s playing socially inept but loveable losers. In this film, they play two unlikely friends who are thrown together when corporate climber Tim (Rudd) is pressured by his boss into finding an ‘schmuck’ to bring to his semiregular ‘Dinner for Idiots’. When Tim runs into (literally) Barry (Carrell), an extraordinarily obtuse taxidermist with a passion for mice, he thinks it’s a good omen for his career – only to find that Barry is a one-man tornado of social and physical disaster.

Besides its stars, Dinner For Schmucks calls on a lineup of superb cameos, from Zach Galifianakis as a tax agent with delusions of grandeur, to Jemaine Clement as a contemporary artist with delusions of depth, and Little Britain’s David Walliams as a pretentious Swiss banker.

Dinner for Schmucks is available now on DVD, and thanks to Paramount Home Entertainment Australia, we have five copies up for grabs. To snag one, tell us one other Steve Carrell film.

What: YouTube Map My Summer What: entries open until March 31 More: head to youtube.com/screenaustralia for more details, and to watch Amy’s film.

ART MONTH - MARCH 2011

Art Month has just launched its new website, in a flurry of colour and good news, including: the return of the Art Bars, which bring alcohol to art, and art to alcohol, at the Australian Centre For Photography, the Beresford Hotel and Sullivan + Strumpf; and a 'Creative Conversations' strand, which will feature the likes of Adam Cullen, Guy Maestri and Adam Laerksen. Also returning is the Art Windows Project, which will focus on getting site-specific art installations into the windows of Macleay Street, in Potts Point. Other artsy shenanigans that tickle our fancy include the ARTcycle guided bicycle tour of Sydney’s galleries… The art may not be free, but no-one can stop you looking. Line-up and latest info at artmonthsydney.com

SLURRY FEST

Just a tiny diary note for all hipsters and Hillsdwellers: the date for Surry Hills Festival this year has been called for Saturday April 9; so clear your schedule of the usual post-binge stupor, and prepare to look casually awesome as you stroll around the festival stomping ground. We’re just happy it’s back at Ward Park and Shannon Reserve, where it belongs (within reach of both the kids play equipment and an assortment of booze barns). Their music lineup hasn’t dropped yet, but is consistently awesome, and if that fails there’s always the ‘Sustainable Food Feature’ and the ‘vintage fashion and eclectic design’… SHF regulars will also be relieved to hear that, for yet another year, all your ‘funky pet wear’ needs can be attended to on the day.

Marion Cotillard stars in Guillaume Canet's Little White Lies

TROPFEST LINE-UP

The line-up of Tropfest finalists dropped last Monday, with high-profile talent like Blue-Tongue Films’ Joel Edgerton, ‘Umbilical Brother’ David Collins, and actor/director Damon Gamaeu making the cut – along with ten-or-so other people who you’ve never heard of because they’re not on TV. In a clever publicity strategy, Tropfest are also allowing the Australian public to pick the final film in the lineup, by voting for their choice of ten runners-up, which can be viewed at youtube. com/tropfest – and voted on with a unequivocal ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ icon… Regardless of which film wins the final spot, all 16 will be screened on Sunday February 20 in the Domain.

PLATFORM (HIP HOP) ARTS

Now in its fourth year, Platform Hip Hop Festival is taking its shit to the next level this March, with a line-up that includes legendary beat-boxer Rahzel, freestyle MC extraordinaire Supernatural and DJ JS1 of Rock Steady Crew fame. These three will provide the jaw-dropping climax to three weeks of workshops, exhibitions, performances, live graf sessions and street art tours, featuring the cream of Sydney’s hip hop scene. The festival has also commissioned local photography hero Nick Bassett, whose work has graced the pages of the Weekend Australian Magazine, Acclaim and Australian Art Review, to create a series of dynamic ‘action portraits’ of local Sydney b-boys, to be exhibited at Carriageworks between March 17 – April 9. platformhiphop.com.au

ALLIANCE FRANCAISE FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL

Alors, mes enfants! It’s that time of year again, when cinephiles descend on cinemas around Sydney in a desperate attempt to savour cinema and escape the monotony of Hollywood drivel… If you find yourself constantly a step ahead of the film you’re watching, and bored at the punchline, then make a note in your calendar around March 8 – 27, for the Alliance Francaise’s French Film Festival. This year’s line-up is 46-films wide, with the big name drawcards including Little White Lies, the sophomore feature from French heart-throb Guillame Canet (who made the very stylish thriller Tell No-One) and starring Marion Cotillard (Inception, La Vie en Rose); and the latest directorial outing by Mathieu Amalric, On Tour. Alons-y! frenchfilmfestival.org

In The Next Room With Pamela Rabe

By Dee Jefferson

P

Elling was a perfectly-executed balance of humour and pathos, constantly entertaining while also leaving a lasting impression – and with pitchperfect performances. All this is probably testament to Rabe’s 30-odd years in the business; but it also suggests a director who is considerably more seasoned than a sophomore; incredibly, In the Next Room is only her third directorial effort.

“I’ve worked with some extraordinary directors in my career, and that can be a bit daunting – if anything, that’s

actually what’s stopped me from directing until this ‘late’ stage in my life,” Rabe admits, going on to cite Neil Armfield, National Theatre (London) stalwart Howard Davies (who directed her in an STC production of The Cherry Orchard in 2005), and acclaimed Australian choreographer and director David Atkins as inspirations.

“When you’ve worked with some of the best, you think, ‘do I have the right to step up to the plate?’” She pauses, searching for a thought – “Who was I reading about – someone else was saying that the other day…

It was probably Marion Potts, at the Malthouse… Which made me think, well, maybe it’s a particularly female thing, and particularly a generational female thing – about the fact that we feel we’ve got..." she pauses again. "Particularly with my generation there isn’t that sense of entitlement that comes from being ‘raised male’; somehow we feel we’ve got to have all the runs behind us, and everything all stacked up, before we feel confident enough to just think ‘fuck it, I have a right to stand here - if I feel I’ve got something to offer, I have a right to stand here and collaborate with people.”

The pay-off of all that experience with seasoned directors is that Rabe has a massive bank of assimilated craft at her disposal. She comments that strategies she IN THE NEXT ROOM (OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY) Although Pamela Rabe and Jacqueline McKenzie are roughly contemporaries within the Australian theatre scene, In The Next Room will be the first time they have worked together - partly because McKenzie, after critical acclaim for her roles in the films Romper Stomper and Angel Baby, moved overseas to work.

INCLUDES

Director Pamela Rabe in rehearsal.

LINE UP

In the Next Room - photo © Grant Sparkes-Carroll / Pamela Rabe in rehearsal - photo by Brett Boardman.

amela Rabe directed one of the most moving – and hilarious – productions of 2009, Sydney Theatre Company’s Elling; she also gave one of that year's most incandescent performances, as the murderously resentful and mentally ill Richard 3 in Benedict Andrews’ War of the Roses – so I almost expect her to be more imposing, in person; the kind of woman who might crush dissidents with her bare hands. However, despite her height – and her towering intellect – she is a study in equanimity. This is a woman who, in an Age interview in ’94, declared herself a chronic mumbler – and it’s one of the first things she says to me when I point the dictaphone in her direction. “I still mumble,” she laughs – and the fact that she’s eating a banana during the conversation doesn’t help.

McKenzie returns to take the central role in Sarah Ruhl’s

is not even consciously aware of having picked up often emerge during rehearsals, at just the right moment. Among her early influences she cites Roger Hodgman (who was to become both the Director of the Melbourne Theatre Company and Rabe’s husband), and Keith Johnstone, the godfather of theatresports – both of whom she trained under in her native Canada.

“You learn that people come at you, highly-skilled artists who bring their wealth of knowledge into a room, and if you’ve got your eyes open, there’s so much to learn. In fact that’s actually something that Howard Davies said, at one point: I remember him saying that as a director you’ve gotta remember to keep your eyes open and watch the actors.

So many directors are thinking about what they’ve got to do, what they’ve got to bring into the room, what they’ve got to ‘sort out’, that they actually stop seeing what’s being offered on the floor. And if you just open your eyes and watch what actors are throwing up in the air and offering you… If you can grab that and run with it, magic can happen. That lesson has been really valuable.”

What: In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) Where: Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House When: February 7 - Mar 27

Pulitzer and Tony-nominated sex comedy – one of several juicy female parts that run throughout Sydney Theatre Company’s 2011 season.

In The Next Room is a profoundly humanist reflection on marriage and relationships, set at the historical crossroads of electricity, and Freudian theory. Ruhl's narrative revolves around Dr Givings, who is involved in a new treatment for female ‘hysteria’ that involves stimulating women’s ‘private parts’ with an electrically-charged object,

Jacqueline McKenzie and David Roberts star in In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) and his young wife, who is struggling to meet the relatively recent challenges of motherhood and marriage.

“I’ve been involved in plays about Freud, and female ailments – psychological ailments; I find the whole notion of ‘hysteria’ to be really interesting,” Rabe admits.

“I also find the cusp of the modern world a really interesting time; I love Ibsen and Chekov and Shaw [for that reason]; I find the beginning of the modern age, and how

that’s reflected in the plays of that period, fascinating – and the fact that Ruhl was setting it in that context fascinated me.

Rabe had read about early productions of In the Next Room in New York, and so when STC Artistic Directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton presented her with the script, her interest was immediately piqued. At just 38 years old, Ruhl is considered one of the most exciting new American dramatists.

“I respond to good writing, and as soon as I read [In the

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Next Room] I thought ‘Oh, this is beautiful!’ [I liked] the idea that, like in Chekov, you can have people having an unselfconscious belly laugh, and then be on the verge of tears the next moment, because where the humour comes from is something that is so fundamentally true, and something that you can identify with as a fellow human being, that the piece can hold in its embrace the whole scope of human feeling! That’s the kind of writing that really, really attracts me – as an actor and a director.”

PLUS:

bal Village, KidZone, Taste the World, a Glo much more! so and e atr the street Dir. Danny Boyle s,Hours, visual art What: 127 When: Whe n: Ope Opens ns February Februa Feb ruary ry 10.

10

Over 4 days in March, 550 artists from 32 countries will perform across 7 stages in Adelaide’s magnificent Botanic Park!

4 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF HEAVENLY MUSIC FRIDAY 11-MONDAY 14 MARCH BOTANIC PARK ADELAIDE E E WEBSIT CHECK THATEST ARTIST FOR THE ULNCEMENTS! ANNO

Book at www.womadelaide.com.au or Venue*Tix or 1300 30 40 72 BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 31

The Wild Duck [THEATRE] A fresh talent in full flight. By Dee Jefferson

Three Little Pigs: Henry Paulson, David Bernanke and Timothy Geithner

Inside Job [FILM] Or: How the US financial industry screwed the world. By Gaynor Flynn

I

n 2008 the world experienced the worst financial crisis since the Depression. Charles Ferguson, a former Internet entrepreneur and advisor to the White House, wanted to know what caused it, whether anyone had seen it coming, and whether it could have been prevented?

In Inside Job, the result of 18 months of hard work, Ferguson takes a highly complex subject and clearly and concisely lays out the history of events that lead to the meltdown. Using a mix of news clips, photographs and graphs, and dozens of interviews with economic advisors, lobbyists, journalists and professors from America's leading business schools - not to mention a high-end Madam and a corporate psychiatrist - Ferguson tries to get some answers. It’s fascinating viewing, particularly when several experts become defensive and flustered when their integrity is called into question.

Ferguson’s first documentary, No End In Sight, looked at America’s involvement in Iraq, and was nominated for an Oscar; Inside Job, narrated by actor Matt Damon, has also earned itself an Oscar nomination. I caught up with the mild-mannered director at Cannes Film Festival last year.

In your film you argue that the financial crisis was preventable - is this correct?

Yes. That was one of the things I wanted to show in the film. This was not a natural disaster. This was not a hurricane. This was something that was done by people and it could have been avoided, and the people that did it should be held accountable.

Why hasn’t anyone been charged?

The United States had 40 years without a single financial crisis, and that was true because the financial system was regulated and was reinforced. Then we deregulated the financial system – [but] we still, for a while, enforced the law; so when the ‘Savings and Loans’ crisis occurred in the late 1980s, several thousand financial executives went to prison for having looted the savings-and-loan industry. But as the

industry’s power grew with each successive crisis, the damage got greater and greater, [but] fewer people went to jail. When it happened again in the late ‘90s, with long-term capital management, the Asian financial crisis, the internet bubble, Enron, Worldcom - maybe 50 people went to jail. The investment banking firms were heavily fined, but more people got a way with it, and punishment was less severe. And this time nobody has gone to jail, and nobody has been fined.

Is that because they didn’t do anything illegal?

No. I don’t think so. I think one of the most disturbing things about the situation is that the law is not being enforced.

How difficult was it to make this film?

None of the CEOs of the banks [and] none of the senior people in the Obama administration would be interviewed, which of course was disappointing; but it wasn’t a surprise, either. It wasn’t, however, all that difficult to figure out what we figured out. I mean, it took a lot of work but the information is there if you look.

One of those experiments was his bleakly comic and raucously overblown comedy The Suicide, after Nikolai Erdai’s Stalinist-era play.

It paled in comparison to The Only Child (while sharing many of the same cast), an incisive dramedy that could make you weep one moment and laugh the next.

By the end of 2010 Stone had been tapped on the shoulder by two of Australia’s leading arbiters of talent: Melbourne’s Malthouse and the Sydney Theatre Company – and Belvoir’s incoming Artistic Director, Ralph Meyers, had appointed him the company’s inaugural 'resident director'. All of which means that the 26-yearold director will get more main stage work this year than many equally talented directors get in several: an adaptation of Brecht’s Baal at STC and then Malthouse, and two productions at Belvoir – starting with an adaptation of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, starring Toby Schmitz (Ruben Guthrie) and Ewen Leslie (The Promise).

In contrast, his adaptation of The Wild Duck cuts to the centre of what makes Stone tick.

“I burn with thoughts about the way we are towards each other as human beings; and when you’re dealing with Ibsen, you’re dealing with the everyday cruelties that human beings who are genuinely nice people commit against each other; [he is] so incredibly, acutely aware of the way that human beings actually behave.”

Of course, with all this meteoric movement, comes the odd afterburn; but Stone seems to be taking the vicissitudes of trial-and-error in his stride. “I did try to kind of create a couple of pieces of entertainment over the past few years; but they’ve been inherently unsatisfying to me, because…” he pauses, choosing his words deliberately: “I think that there are some people who are so extraordinarily good at that kind of entertainment, that it should be left to those people.”

What was one of the most surprising things you discovered?

When I started making the film I had no idea (and it was not generally known) that the investment banks had been designing securities with the explicit goal of betting on their failure when they sold them to people. I have to say I was dumbfounded.

“The Suicide was a good experiment in the form of comedy; I enjoyed the process of doing something purely to make people laugh, because it taught me a skill,” says Stone. “But at the same time, I wasn’t expressing my own soul; I wasn’t expressing the way that I think about life – it was kind of an ‘intellectual’ thought – like, ‘oh, I’d like to do a comedy’ – which is not a reason to make work.”

In Ibsen’s original, the intertwining fates of two neighbouring families come crashing to a painful confrontation on one day, leading to tragedy. Stone keeps the story and the key characters, and splits the narrative into five characters’ perspectives on the week leading up to the ‘tragic event’. He also liberates the story from Ibsen’s heavily didactic tone, transforming it from a parable about the comparative value of ‘truth’, to a multifaceted narrative about the complicated morality of relationships. “It’s not Ibsen’s script,” Stone stresses, “It’s my script.”

While Stone fiercely admires Ibsen as a playwright, this production also underlines his broader and ongoing passion for reimagining classics as contemporary stories.

“The audience, by walking away from that experience, end up having this solidarity with their past that is both this kind of terrifying notion that we’ll never get better, but also this incredibly comforting notion, that we’re not the first people to go through this.”

How did Matt Damon get involved in the film?

We asked him and he said yes. It was that simple, it really was. He was great to work with. He clearly had read the transcript quite carefully, and he actually had several very good suggestions about how to improve it - and so some of the language and the narration is actually his.

What: The Wild Duck What: Inside Job, Dir. Charles Ferguson

When: February 12 – March 27

When: Opens February 17 More: insidejobmovie.com.au

Director Simon Stone in rehearsal for The Wild Duck

Where: Belvoir St Main Stage

Some Film Museums I Have Known [THEATRE] Diorama Dramas and Holographic Heroes. By Simon Binns

T

he Old Fitz has always been a vital venue in the Sydney independent theatre scene. With its pub setting, intimate environment, and the all important beer, laksa and show deal, this converted cellar has for many years now been a place where both up-and-coming and professional artists could experiment, and find new audiences.

Now, with the demise of Belvoir’s independent stream, B Sharp, it seems that the Old Fitz is set to become an even more important stepping stone to the main stage.

The latest company to take advantage of this opportunity is Rhubarb Rhubarb, who are bringing their show Some Film Museums I Have Known to town as part of the Imperial Panda Festival.

A tale of neurotic obsession, Some Film

32 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

Museums focuses on a cinema-obsessed loner who runs a small-town film museum.

Written by Eddie Sharp and Kenzie Larsen, the show has been three years in the making and was developed through a number of residencies at various locations, from Hot House’s “A Month in the Country” to Melbourne’s Next Wave festival. This long gestation has given the team opportunities to fully develop the unique technological requirements of the project.

One of the ways that the company explore the inner workings of their central character is through the use of holograms - which is where Nick Coyle, of Pig Island fame, comes into the picture. “Some would says it’s the biggest part of the show,” smiles Coyle, who plays two holographic brothers that the main character has imagined. “It’s a tricky method of projection and reflection and mirrors and glass, which I don’t understand… it’s really sciency.”

Whilst creating a logistical nightmare for Will Mansfield, who is in charge of creating the effects, it also means that most of Coyle’s work is done before the show even makes it to tech week. “My stuff is all pre-recorded, so the show itself is easy for me.”

For Coyle, one of the drawcards of getting involved in Some Film Museums was the chance to work with Natalie Randall, an exciting young performer who’s been making

a name for herself as part of performance collectives Team Mess and Tiger Two Times.

Randall is centrestage in this production, taking the role of the 'cinema-obsessessed loner'. “Nat is a legend and I’d wanted to work with her for a while,” Coyle enthuses. “I’m looking forward to while not physically acting with her, being in the same project.”

Another of the show’s key design elements is the diorama set, which spans a number of environments – from mountain ranges to deserts and forests. “The [diorama] models will surround the whole stage and there’s a train track that runs through it,” Coyle explains. “A train will then go along those tracks with a little camera attached and that’s then projected.”

This transformation of the Old Fitz into the ever-evolving world of the film fanatic’s reality is part of what Coyle finds so exciting about the project. “The good thing about the Fitz is you can really make a complete world on stage, and that’s what this show is.” A darkly comic, surreal, holographic world.

What: Some Film Museums I Have Known When: February 18 – March 12 Where: The Old Fitzroy Hotel – Theatre More: rocksurfers.org / rhubarbrhubarbpresents.com

The Wild Duck - photo by Heidrun Lohr

S

imon Stone grew up in Switzerland and fell into acting out of high school (including high profile films like Jindabyne and Kokoda), before sidestepping into theatre via Melbourne’s VCA; upon graduation, the frustrated theatremaker formed his own theatre company (The Hayloft Project), followed by three years of intense experimentation with the theatrical form on the independent stages of first Melbourne and then Sydney - at which point Neil Armfield snatched him up for Belvoir’s main stage, programming Stone’s adaptation of The Promise as part of his 2009 season.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Stone and Hayloft delivered one of 2009’s best independent productions: The Only Child, based on Ibsen’s Little Eyolf. He was just 24.

BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 33

Arts Snap

Film & Theatre Reviews

At the heart of the arts Where you went last week.

What's hot on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.

■ Film

127 HOURS

big deal : tim andrew

PICS :: TL

Released February 10

27:01:11 :: Gaffa Gallery :: 281 Clarence Steet 9283 4273

After Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle had the world at his fingertips. With eight Oscars, critical praise and ample box-office mojo, he could have made any film he wanted. And what did he choose? A brisk, 94-minute thriller about James Franco getting his arm stuck under a rock.

You’ve got to hand it to Boyle for taking an otherwise unfilmable true story and turning it into a dazzling, life-affirming drama. The plot is simple: reckless adventurer Aron Ralston (Franco) is pinned under a boulder in a remote canyon in eastern Utah. With dwindling supplies and little more than a video camera, a bit of rope and a cheap pocket knife, engineer-come-thrill-seeker Ralston must dig deep to see if he has what it takes to survive.

rolling stone awards

PICS :: TL

Boyle fashions this arm-sawing tale of survival into an intense story of a man addicted to adventure and lacking the close personal relationships most of us hold dear.

Ralston doesn’t answer his mother’s calls.

He doesn’t even bother to tell anyone where he’s going; his route through the fateful Blue John Canyon is a snap for a man of his experience; or, maybe there just isn’t anyone to tell.

25:01:11 :: B2 Studios :: Alexandria

Arts Exposed What's on our calendar...

Chinese New Year Festival All week, ends February 13 There's one more week left of Chinese New Year celebrations, and heaps of cool stuff you should skip work/class/sleep for: like classes and yummy cantonese at the Mahjong Room, and weekend Dragon Boat Races at Darling Harbour (like a massive, prettier version of the Head of the River regatta, but with fewer wankers)...

Or you could do John Newton’s China Town Food Tour (Saturday Feb 12, 10am-3.20pm), in which the acclaimed food writer will show you to all the best eathouses from the different regional cuisines, and engage in casual banter as you chow down on Yum Cha and/or delicious Chinese lunch…(food included in ticket price, banter optional). And if we don’t sleep in, we’ll be heading along on Sunday to take Tai Chi and Meditation classes in the Chinese Gardens (10am-10.45am for meditation, 11-11.45am for Tai Chi), just $6/$3 (included in Garden entry fee). cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/CNY 34 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

In the end the overt themes of 127 Hours are laid on thick by Boyle and his Slumdog screenwriter, Simon Beaufoy: life is precious; relationships should be cherished. In between is a dazzling display of inventive filmmaking – triple split screens, ultra close-ups, smash-cuts – all to the strains of A.R. Rahman’s pulsating score and Boyle’s astute song choices. A film set largely in one location has no right to be this entertaining.

The kinetic style places you unnervingly inside Ralston’s energized mind, making it even more unbearable when he finally gets out his blunt pocket knife and gets a’hackin’.

The arm-severing scene, much touted for its gore and intensity, speaks to the effectiveness of the film: Boyle doesn’t show us all that much, but he sure makes you feel it.

Anchoring the film through all the showiness is Franco’s flawless performance. With good looks that belie his considerable talent, he’s already garnered Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award nominations for this career-best turn. Apart from an invigorating run-in with Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn’s fellow hikers early on, and his dehydration-induced hallucinations of his ex-girlfriend and family members, Franco is the only actor on screen. He, like Boyle, puts you through the ringer.

highest-grossing films of all time (Titanic, Avatar). His name is plastered all over the advertising for this Aussie spelunking thriller, which is high on technical cred but low on everything else.

Much like 127 Hours, Sanctum’s plot is bare bones: a group of cavers in a beautiful cave system in Papua New Guinea must escape to the surface when a tropical cyclone entombs them inside.

Unlike 127 Hours, however, mother nature’s imminent victims are thinly drawn archetypes: Frank (Richard Roxburgh), the gruff team leader; Josh (Rhys Wakefield), his unappreciated 17-year-old son; and Carl (Ioan Gruffudd), the potentially volatile financier. Also trapped in the subterranean hollow is Carl’s girlfriend, Victoria (Alice Parkinson), who is bereft of caving experience, wit and common sense.

Supposedly “inspired” by co-writer Andrew Wight’s own experiences, Sanctum feels born less from fact than stock B-movie tropes. Expendable characters are loppedoff in occasionally suspenseful ways (if you don’t like getting your hair pulled, there will be at least one scene that will induce a wince), but the banal dialogue grates and a layer of insipid melodrama dampens the escalating tension.

More than that great 2005 horror, The Descent, the film it most resembles is The Poseidon Adventure and others of its 1970s disaster-ilk. That film, cheesy as it is, had Gene Hackman and Shelley Winters gnawing at the scenery; here only Roxburgh (and The Chaser’s Andrew Hanson in a brief expository cameo) infuses Wight and John Garvin’s prosaic screenplay with a glimmer of energy.

Sanctum’s pleasures derive primarily from its impressive technical accomplishments.

Using a mixture of CGI, sets and secondunit location footage shot in caves in South Australia, director Alister Grierson (Kokoda) makes good use of his $30 million budget. Cameron’s producing credit allowed Grierson to utilize the same 3D Fusion system used in Avatar and it shows – this is the best live-action 3D since that special-effects opus.

Shot largely on the Gold Coast, Sanctum is a ringing endorsement of local technical expertise. But despite some tense, welldirected sequences, it can’t overcome its water-logged screenplay.

Joshua Blackman

Joshua Blackman ■ Film

SANCTUM Released February 3 James Cameron is a peculiar combination of director and tech-head, the kind of guy who goes deep-sea diving and invents 3d cameras when he’s not directing the

See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews

DVD Reviews

What's been on our TV screens this week On the correlation between money and happiness...

PLEASE GIVE

WALL STREET 2: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS

Roadshow Entertainment Released January 20 A new film from Nicole Holofcener (Lovely and Amazing, Friends with Money) is an exiting thing for anyone with a dark, offbeat sense of humour, and a yen for Catherine Keener.

Holofcener is sort of like the Noah Baumbach (Greenberg) of white middle class women - her bittersweet, slightly caustic comedies are full of characters that are obsessive, narcissistic, neurotic; but because they’re doing their best to grapple with life’s quandaries, we embrace them. This is a director who has mastered the exposition of those everyday, private moments of vulnerability that we recognise in ourselves, and cherish in others (if only in commiseration).

Keener (Holofcener’s perennial muse) stars as Kate, a successful vintage furniture dealer living in New York’s ultra chic Greenwich Village; she has a ‘comfortable’ marriage to the cheerfully pragmatic Alex (Oliver Platt) and a beautiful apartment, but is plagued by middle class guilt, which she exorcises through acts of inept charity – whether she’s offering expensive leftovers to a man in the street, keeping the local drag queen in Chanel lipstick, or hosting a 90th-birthday dinner for her acid-tongued nextdoor neighbour Andra (whose apartment she and Alex have bought, and plan to renovate – the second Andra dies).

With support roles from Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet, playing mismatched sisters, the film seems to be looking at different attitudes towards ‘neighbourly’ responsibility, with the general trajectory of all the characters being towards a more balanced practice of compassion.

Please Give seems like Holofcener’s most upbeat film yet – and it’s definitely her most ‘refined’ as a director – but I'm not sure i don't prefer the darker undertones of her earlier work.

20th Century Fox Released January 27

When the 20th Century Fox title rolls past, and Oliver Stone starts speaking – introducing his commentary track – I can’t tell you how excited I get. Not necessarily because I am a Stone fan – although I’d say most people admire at least a handful of his films (Born of the 4th of July, Platoon, JFK, Natural Born Killers…) but because sitting with Oliver Stone for two hours has to be one of the most interesting things you can do with a Wednesday night. This is a guy who at the age of nine, began his autobiography; who was raised rich and pushed towards a career on Wall Street; who, after his parents split, and his Dad bombed financially, departed Yale for a teaching position in Saigon, arriving there in 1965…

If that already sounds like a great autobiography, then consider that he left Saigon two years later as a worker on a US merchant ship, finished his first novel in Mexico, and by the age of 21 was back in Vietnam, as a US marine. Holy fuck. When he finally got to NYU, via a Mexican jail, his first teacher was Martin Scorsese.

So, what are you going to do with your night?

You’re going to watch Wall Street 2; you’re going to get to the end and wonder why he did it that way, and then go right back to the beginning and turn on the commentary. Stone is going to tell you why he felt the need to revisit one of his most successful films, 23 years later, what both Wall Street and Wall Street mean to him, why Shia LaBeouf is better than anyone knows yet, and a whole heck of a lot more. Sit back, relax.

Dee Jefferson

Mike and some dads in the neighbourhood used their $2000 matching grant to organise free local bike fixing workshops.

If you are like Mike and have a great idea to do some good in the City of Sydney, find out more about our matching grants program: cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/matchinggrants or call 9265 9217

Dee Jefferson

Street Level

NE F XT RO WM EE K!

AWARD WINNING COMEDY COMES TO BELVOIR STREET!

With New Planes Public Press

H

aving blitzed through last year with their pilot issue and their ‘Mobile Cart’ of zines and vinyl, New Planes Public Press launched issue#1, Obvious Viewing, at GoodGod last Thursday night. We took five with the ladies to find out more about the New Planes cult…

Who are New Planes?

We are Hayley Morgan and Lisa Lerkenfeldt.

We’re both writers, among other things, and so met through a previous writing gig and Sydney’s garage/punk music circuit. We also now live together, which makes indoor gardening, African cooking and conceiving publishing ideas easy.

What is New Planes Public Press? And how does it work – who can contribute, and how? What are the parameters? EXPLAINS! New Planes Public Press is an open model for writers and artists to experiment with text and images in print format. As an outlet for liberal thinking, critical news and alternative transmissions, the broadsheet blurs boundaries, overlaps interests and explores the relationship between a generation and its press. NPPP welcomes individual voices, political agendas, mystical journeys, alternative art analysis, real or imagined interviews, lyrics, photo essays, poetry and artwork. There are almost no rules. NPPP is the framework for re-evaluating what is considered acceptable contemporary journalism.Prior to each issue, we open submissions to the public, from which the issue content is selected. We also curate the involvement of key impressive humans/ idols.

How long have you been working together now? And how often will you release an issue?

About a year. We're looking at doing 2 per year.

What’s your mobile cart – and where is it popping up next?

The New Planes Book and Record Service is a mobile cart initiative aimed to connect curious humans with alternative stimulus. We stock national, independent matter, things we love and other bits picked up at gigs along the way.

Right now, everyone is really into supporting

each other and working together. We work quite closely with friends in bands/record labels, so we have some cool barter systems in place. Next up we’re at Laneway Festival on Sunday and working towards involvement with the Imperial Panda Festival.

Tell us about some of the unexpected (or expected!) delights in issue #1: People are so impressive if given the freedom!

We’re really excited to have Brendan Huntley’s (Eddy Current Suppression Ring) artwork on the front cover. There is an hilarious photo essay about being a constant third-wheel, a great comparative study on Termite Mounds and The Internet, Dylan Martorell’s home-made instruments and a killer piece about anarchy in the academy.

What are your favourite zines/indie publications at the moment, and why?

On the NP cart: Angie and Harriet (Southern Comfort/Circle Pit) have just made a pretty cute 24-hour zine which is new to our cart. We’re really into Zephyr A. Pavey’s (Total Control) photo zines. Thomas Jeppe’s Home Made Tattoos Rule book always impresses people at gigs. The Hashish Cookbook is a total sell-out every time. All over the world, past and present: we’re always impressed by Cosmic Wonder Free Press and Mousse, as well as older stuff like Sniffin’ Glue.

What: New Planes Public Press issue #1: Obvious Viewing More: Submissions for issue #2 are open now! See newplanes.tumblr.com Available: theartpark.com.au

WINNER

FESTIVAL DIRECTORS’ AWARD Melbourne Comedy Festival

2010

“a self-deprecating, likeable and endearingly flawed narrator” The Age

triple j breakfast

co-host

EWCOMER WINNER - BMESEDTYNFESTIVAL 2009

MELBOURNE CO

“watch this boy:

s” he’s going place The Age

BOOK NOW - 2 WEEKS ONLY! BELVOIR ST THEATRE / 15-27 FEBRUARY WWW.BELVOIR.COM.AU OR 9699 3444 BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 35

Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...

ALBUM OF THE WEEK CUT COPY

exactly the same as it always has, but cuts like ‘Pharaohs and Pyramids’ or the relentlessly grooving opener ‘Need You Now’ demonstrate that his partners have finally found the right textures to surround it.

Zonoscope Modular

These guys go from strength to strength. While indieelectro purists stuck in 2005 will tell you that nothing beats the icy Bright Like Neon Love, the truth is that Melbourne’s Cut Copy continually better themselves with each subsequent release - and Zonoscope is no exception. Outfitted with a swag of stomping, swinging and swooning tunes which build on an already sizeable sound, Zonoscope is a monster of an album in every respect.

Zonoscope is a natural addition to the Cut Copy oeuvre; beatdriven, star-gazing and utterly addictive.

Whether it’s the songs themselves, which are given extended room to jam out loops and licks (and rarely duck below the five-minute mark), or the stuffed set of sounds which pack out every second, there’s a lot to love here.

Dan Whitford’s David Byrne-aspiring intonation sounds

MOGWAI

THE MONEY SMOKERS

Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will Spunk Records On first listen, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is not too promising. The album begins with gentle math-rock tinkerings that spin into some of the swirling euphoria that fans should, by now, be overly familiar with. Tracks like opener ‘White Noise’ and ‘Death Rays’ are lucid and refreshing, but in entirely predictable and uninspiring ways - remember, this is the band that brought the eviscerating brilliance of ‘Like Herod’ and ‘Killing All The Flies’ into the world.

Here they could almost be mistaken for U2 on mushrooms. ‘Mexican Grand Prix’ seems to be a lackadaisical stab at krautrock, with unimaginative phrasing laid over a sterile, throbbing beat. ‘George Square Thatcher Death Party’ equates to a vocodered, postrock Blink 182 (albeit superbly titled).

But for the second and third listens, don some nicer headphones. Mogwai were always as much about intricate detail as brute volume and spiralling melancholia, and that attention is what saves Hardcore… from tedium.

‘Mexican Grand Prix’, for instance, turns into a complex exercise in texture bartering, with disconcertingly alien vocals panned from ear to ear.

The stronger tracks become more compelling too, a few even managing to ring true to the band’s ethos, while satisfactorily progressing beyond its history. ‘Rano Pano’ floors, with its lofty overdriven arpeggios reappropriating celtic harmony for the 21st century.

‘Too Raging To Cheers’ builds from gentle piano and viola into staggering towers of melody, infinitely folding in on themselves. And closer ‘You’re Lionel Richie’ balances bleak moodiness, harmonic optimism and sleight-of-hand progressions like only Mogwai can.

Although it improves vastly after a few listens, never does the album reach the staggering heights of Mogwai's best work.

From the moment the opening riff of ‘Your Name’ swaggers into the left of the mix, it’s clear we’ve embarked on a no-nonsense journey to down ‘n dirty rock town. For the next fifteen minutes The Money Smokers crank everything up to 11, ripping through four tracks with enough gusto to strike fear into Jet and Deep Purple.

The fourpiece has achieved a full production sound that complements their desire to reanimate nostalgic joys of yesteryear. With a Dylan-like ring in ‘Earnest Jones’ and a Jaggeresque snarl in ‘Heart of Stone (Can You Dig It?)’ - no mean feat for a Sydneysider - Tristan James’ voice is bang on the money genre-wise, as is the fuck-you anarchic stoicism of lyrics like “I’ve been trying to find my way out of town / I’m gonna suffer ‘til I’m free”.

As energetic as the EP is, its sound could be construed as onedimensional. Beginning and ending with balls-out vibrancy, little room is left for variety and, although the jamming on ‘Out Of Town’ speaks volumes for their live capacity, at times the consistently high level of intensity borders on monotonous. But then again, maybe I’m just not rock enough.

An indefatigable and promising debut EP sure to pacify the rock gods.

Zonoscope was made for speakers; it’s a gorgeous piece of work that was definitely worth the wait. No wonder it leaked worldwide two weeks before release...

Jonno Seidler

TENNIS Cape Dory Spunk

The Money Smokers Independent So you’re lamenting the loss of that thick 70s rock sound?

Pining for roaring vocals, squealing guitar solos, fleshy Hammond B accompaniment and slinky basslines?

Despair no longer. Sydney boys The Money Smokers’ self-titled debut EP will put you out of your misery.

One of the few crossovers from the newer dance revival actually worth their salt, Cutters take risks, wear their influences brazenly, and mix them with ingenuity by crafting something that sounds exclusively like themselves.

This isn’t something you’ll have to convince anybody else to like, because with fingers in every aurally-pleasing pie, the album is already there. Though their forays outside of their niche sometimes lack punch (see the ‘So Haunted’ successor, ‘Alisa’), it’s a minor quibble.

The recurrence of surf rock and doo-wop throughout the world of American indie is no real surprise. It’s a logical progression for guitar groups desperate to distinguish themselves from the encroaching world of digitally generated music, and the ballsier pop history of the British (Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Kinks… the list is longer than both of my arms, and spans for over three decades).

It crept in quite subtly; Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear shyly referencing the Beach Boys as though it was a faux pas, but framing the allusion in exciting new ways.

Then came Beach House, with Phil Spector and Lee Hazlewood informing disarmingly beautiful songs.

Last year, Beth Cosentino saw it fit to cut to the chase completely - she left (the infinitely more interesting) Pocahaunted, and formed Best Coast. The illusion of subtlety was shattered.

And now, Tennis. They don’t even try to pretend they’re breaking any molds. You can’t even call Cape Dory a tribute to that golden era of American pop; it’s not trying hard enough. The songwriting is an unimaginative gesture in the direction of the 60s, and the murky production quality sounds more like a necessity of cheap modern equipment than a calculated move for authenticity’s sake. The whole thing reeks of a dispirited cash-in on a passing fad.

The contrivance extends, unconcealed, even to the lyrics: “you wanna go where it never snows / and the late 60s are the extreme clothes/ well I know a place that invites that scene / we can drift all day in the gentle beam...”

Luke Telford

Be Kind EP Broken Stone Records New bands are often compared to existing ones to give potential listeners a frame of reference, so let’s get this out of the way. With the debut EP from Sydney’s Sister Jane, you’ll hear the elegance of well-crafted Byrds songs coupled with the heady, pulsing Americana of a Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell collaboration.

But the most important thing to mention

36 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

Cloud Nothings Rogue/Inertia

Moonshine Lemonade Casadeldisco

With sixteen tracks, Cloud Nothings can take a while to digest, but never fear; the brilliance of Baldi’s hooks don’t fade, however many times you give it a whirl. 'Hey Cool Kid' is a good introduction, as is ‘Another Man’ and ‘Old Street’. Each song offers up something a little bit different from the last but just as good, so you don’t end up with two or three favourites, but sixteen.

The lo-fi production is one of the first things you'll notice, but Baldi is reported to have said that the fuzzy reverb and frequent distortions were purely coincidental, and that he’s keen to "make the recordings sound professional." And after watching some acoustic versions on the web, it seems to me that he could just about record underwater and I’d still want to hear the song. Hooks of tracks like ‘Can’t Stay Awake’ (“call, call, call, call me up / I, I, I, I can’t stay awake”) beg to be repeated and shouted and hummed and sung until the person next to you pleads with you to learn the next line.

Thank goodness he's no longer doing ANTH 101. Check it.

Flaccid, half-hearted nostalgia.

Pleasant enough, I suppose. At least it’s mercifully brief.

I became familiar with Philadelphia’s G. Love back in eighth grade, through my unhealthy obsession with Xavier Rudd, Jack Johnson and other barefooted Angus Stone predecessors. His soulful, funky hip hop was always an anomaly to the other artists signed to Johnson’s Brushfire Records - but I dug him all the same.

This collab with Melbourne’s Plutonic (of Muph and Plutonic) came to fruition in the form of Moonshine & Lemonade – two drinks which go some way towards explaining the sound. Country-tinged, raw blues moonshine is fused with the urban Schweppervescence of lemonade, in an intriguing cross-cultural aesthetic.

The homespun vibe of the album was endorsed and induced by both artists, and by leaving in the small imperfections, Moonshine Lemonade has a live feel, as if they were performing to you on a verandah in the 'burbs – from the crackly country stomp of ‘Crawling Kingsnake’ to the Wurlitzer-juiced 'Vibin Survivin''.

G. Love’s lazy swagger makes his blend of hip hop so easy to listen to (see the percussion- and harmonicaladen ‘Write Rhyme’), and while I’m sure most of the hip hop community would be shaking in their moonboots if their dope beats were described as ‘easy listening’, that’s exactly what it is. You could be hearing this in a low-lit New Orleans blues joint or in a hammock in Panama.

This breezy, scruffy production is classic G. Love; a laid-back fusion of country, blues, funk and Australian/American hip hop. My major issue is that Plutonic is largely overshadowed - sometimes, he seems more cameo than collaborator.

Rach Seneviratne

Luke Telford

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK SISTER JANE

PLUTONIC & G. LOVE

Some people have all the luck. And some of those people get all the talent. When he was 18, the mastermind behind Cloud Nothings, Cleveland's Dylan Baldi, was faced with the decision between university finals and his first gig. So he dropped out of college to become a full time musician - and it really paid off. Now 19, Baldi has created an album designed to make you feel bad about pretty much anything you thought you’d achieved by that age this stuff is just so damn good.

Liz Brown Andrew Geeves

CLOUD NOTHINGS

here isn't who they're influenced by, but how well they do it; Sister Jane's songs match the strength and power of the artists that came before them. But with a band made up of three members of Belles Will Ring, and led by Dan Davey’s dreamy vocals, that’s hardly a surprise.

As a whole, the EP is familiar and comforting, like putting on a warm jumper on a cold day. The chorus of the opener and title track tells us to “be kind”; there’s little to do but recline in its splendour from the outset.

The band has a deep pool of talent, and the sound they’ve laid down indicates that they could go in a number of directions from here. With

Be Kind they’ve gone for haze and jangle, but there’s little doubt that Sister Jane also possess a reservoir of danger. They could easily go into the mind-bending psychedelic business, and push listeners into places they rarely venture; the outer suburbs of the soul, perhaps. In their female vocalist especially, they show a real firepower; every time Lauren Crew’s purr pushes its way through the shuffling guitar jangle, a crawling thrill shakes the nerves. I expect she’s ruined a few young men with that voice of hers...

Be Kind is an excellent debut, which finds Sister Jane pushing into the league of some very great bands.

Duncan Idaho

OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week...

TEAM TEAMWORK - Final Fantasy 7 THE DECEMBERISTS - The King Is Dead V/A - The Best Of Bond... James Bond

FAITHLESS - The Dance THE NATIONAL - High Violet

snap sn ap

blonde redhead

PICS :: TL

up all night out all week . . .

cameras @ oaf

PICS :: RR

29:01:11 :: The Opera House :: Ticketmaster 92507111

we love indie

PICS :: AM

26:01:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711

deftones

PICS :: JC

29:01:11 :: Forbes Hotel :: 30 York St Sydney 92993703

28:01:11 :: UNSW Roundhouse :: Cnr Anzac Pde & High St 93857630

Teenage Kicks

It sounds like: The biggest indie night in the UK, coming to Sydney.

Who’s playing? DJ Dan (Propaganda UK), Mush, Urby Sell it to us: Propaganda is a right proper guitar-based indie institution that’s a feature of 17 cities across the UK and Ireland, playing the very best new rock’n’roll and Britpop singalongs. Propaganda’s main man and founder DJ Dan was Oasis’ tour DJ for the last four years, and plays to around 10,000 people on a weekly basis.

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: It’ll probably be quite hazy, but you’ll definitely hear the best new and classic indie, with amazing visuals to boot.

Crowd specs: Loads of indie mofos having a good run at our $5.50 schooies of Coopers Pale and $6 house spirits. Kick on after Les Savy Fav and Local Natives shows.

Wallet damage: Always free!

Where: The World Bar, 24 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross.

When: Thursday February 10, 9pm (and every Thursday)

last night

PICS :: DM

party profile

It’s called: Teenage Kicks presents: Propaganda

28:01:11 :: The Gaelic Theatre :: 64 Devonshire St Surry Hills 92111687 AN BUI :: INNERSTYLE :: ASHLEY : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: SUS :: TOM TRAMONTE :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERS NA HAN ROU ETTE POTPLANT :: ROS MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: SARAH

BRAG :: 397 :: 31:01:11 :: 37

snap sn ap

live reviews What we've been to see...

up all night out all week . . .

ANDREW W.K. Oxford Art Factory, Tuesday January 25 “It’s time to party. Let’s party ... Have a killer party and party!” These lyrics, from Andrew W.K’s appositely titled hit ‘It’s Time to Party’, make me anticipate something of a party tonight... Sydney's Royal Headache precede the self-appointed King of Partying, limbering the crowd up with their punk-inflected pop rock. Appropriate support band party!

“Hello everybody. It’s time to party!” booms Andrew W.K over the sound of introductory distortion. With the crowd induced to chant “Party”, curtains open to reveal a five-piece support troupe including what seems to be a headbanging aerobics cheerleader. Replete with fishnets, high cut black leotard, white singlet emblazoned with the colourful slogan “PARTY HARD” and bountiful party energy, she’s the walking incarnation of a Jane Fonda/Gene Simmons/Tae Bo super combo.

Eighties rock workout party!

Clad in all white, Andrew W.K. emerges and rips the roof off with a million-decibel rendition of ‘It’s Time Party’. IT’S TIME TO PARTY! W.K. successfully hammers out a pretty-much constant party theme; his entertainment value more than backs up his rhetoric.

His performance is something akin to the realisation of the Wayne’s World ethos (Party time! Excellent!), via anthems reminiscent of Styx and Guns ‘n’ Roses, a whole lot of fun and genuinely talented musicianship.

Professional performance party!

PICS :: RR

hot damn

As gracious host, rather than centre of the party, W.K. is admirably humble. Virtuosic keyboard abilities complement rather than dominate the overall wall of sound in ‘Take It Off’ and ‘Never Let Go’. W.K. embraces the involvement of audience members, putting his arm around those who have crowdsurfed their way onto the stage, and allowing them to savour the moment. During the encore rendition of ‘I Get Wet’, this results in W.K. getting all but lost in a surge of over 40 sweaty, happy, hairy headbangers, but he carries on regardless. “This is what it’s all about. Thank you. We all went through this together”. His generosity as a performer binding the audience together in a love-in, W.K.’s powers as a motivational speaker, his second job, are tangible. Inspiration party!

27:01:11 :: Spectrum :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245

Andrew Geeves

SUFJAN STEVENS

oxford art factory

PICS :: TT

Sydney Opera House, Thursday January 27

28:01:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711

It

party profile

the lockhearts

It’s called: The Lockhearts: ‘Nothing To Me’ single launch!

Sounds like: The lovechild of old-school L.A. and Oz Rock; raw and raunchy, with a don’t-bore-us-get-to-the-chorus attitude.

Who’s playing? The Lockhearts, Strangers In The Dark, Spangled Mistress and Matt Young.

Sell it to us: Snarling, loud and dirty in all the right places, The Lockhearts’ live show runs with soaring guitar solos, filthy rock grooves, and stratospheric screams from front-man and fans alike. You’ll actually be able to feel the good vibrations.

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: The infectious melodies of ‘Nothing To Me’ – which everyone will receive a free download card for on entry!

Crowd specs: Up for it.

Wallet damage: $10 Where: Melt Bar, Kings Cross When: Friday February 11, 9pm

AN BUI :: INNERSTYLE :: ASHLEY : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: SUS :: TOM TRAMONTE :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERS NA HAN POTPLANT :: ROSETTE ROU MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: SARAH

38 :: BRAG :: 397: 31:01:11

With his carefully careless hair and newsboy cap, Canadian violin-pop virtuoso Owen Pallett looks more like a precocious 12-yearold than the purveyor of epic, heartfelt ballads – especially when he’s alone and spot-lit on a very large stage, surrounded by an army of sound gear. But while Pallett may look like a street urchin sneaking a practice-run in the Concert Hall, he sounds incredible – a sort of Andrew Bird and Jonsi hybrid. And although his loop-juggling skills aren't always matched by his ability to lay them down in the first place (nerves?), he produces a rich, layered live sound – jazz organ arpeggios overlaid by the strident bowing of his violinas-rhythm-section, over which he throws different melody lines, one by one. Floating somewhere near the ceiling is a voice that makes up in purity what it lacks in technical precision. Perhaps the biggest surprise was just how far he pushed the discordance of songs like ‘Lewis Takes Action’ – and the fact that, improbably, his live show did tracks like ‘Lewis Takes Off His Shirt’ more justice than even the record.

Never one for understatement, Sufjan Stevens arrives with a ten-piece band in fluoro spacesuits. The band – two drumkits, two trombones, two back-up singers, two of everything? – opens with a cacophonic dissonance that warns us immediately: prepare for noise.

Many worried about how The Age Of Adz would translate live. Sufjan's first LP of new material in five years, it eschews his sweetly sung narratives and string-section climaxes in favour of an awe-inspiring excess of meter, tone, noise and experiment. Adz was inspired by outsider artist and self-proclaimed prophet Royal Robertson, whose art and ideas Sufjan introduces us to mid-set via a slideshow, as “a mix of childlike naivety and adult brutality”.

So if at times Sufjan’s new material is harder to connect with, that’s because it’s meant to be; “I wanted to steer away from the elemental songwriting that I’d exhausted over the years, to focus just on sound,” he tells us.

From the opener ‘Seven Swans’, the stage is packed with instruments and costumed musicians, and backed by visuals that move through as many wondrous chapters as the songs themselves. Meanwhile, songs like ‘Too Much’, ‘Age of Adz’, and (the unsettlingly religious) ‘Get Real Get Right’ are accompanied by more choreography than one could reasonably expect from two waif-ish hipster girls. Sufjan sets the soulwrenching climax of ‘Vesuvius’ against the pop elation of ‘Get Real’, interspersed with the poignant wonder of folkier songs like ‘Futile Devices’ and ‘Heirloom’. And each time the enormity of the show threatens to feel like an exercise in ego, he tempers it with self-deprecation: “This song is about the end of the world; the end of the human heart,” he pompously proclaims, before a humble backtrack: “No, let’s not confuse the two, let’s be adults about this. Ugh. I’m always freaking out…” Sufjan’s albums have never given much away about him, so tonight it’s nice to get to know the man himself. “I spent most of my childhood at a Steiner school playing with beeswax,” he says. “I couldn’t get a job. That’s why I became a musician.”

The night ends with a 25-minute journey through Sufjan’s epic ‘Impossible Soul,’ as he moves from mic to piano to keyboard to computer, embodying each movement of the song. The concert hall is in raptures by the final movement, in which Sufjan emerges triumphant (“It’s a long life / Only one last chance”) in feather boa and a propellor cap (“Couldn’t get much better”), busting out his infamous awkward-robot jig (“Do you wanna dance?”). By the time he gets to “We can do much more together” we’re on our feet, beaming and clapping, laughing at ourselves like members of some kind of atrocious cult – “It’s not so impossible!”

Elated, exalted Sufjan fans begging for an encore. How do you capitalise on that? Play ‘Chicago’' - and release the balloons...

Dee Jefferson & Steph Harmon

CAT POWER Sydney Opera House, Sunday January 30 Chan ‘Cat Power’ Marshall is a popular lady, but running half an hour late and with no support, she cuts a lonely figure on stage.

Her warm reception acknowledged with a raspy, whispered ‘thank you’, she launches into solo guitar work. A collective holding-ofbreath accompanies a momentary pause as she makes a minor adjustment to her amplifier: are we in for one of her disastrous performances of recent years? Probably not, if an admittedly hesitant cover of The Stones’ ‘Satisfaction’ is anything to go by...

At least, I think that’s what it was. Marshall's live renditions of songs have a reputation of differing so markedly from their originals that they become unrecognisable.

A band of co-conspirators including drummer Jim White (Dirty Three) and guitarist Judah Bauer (Blues Explosion) help Marshall cut and paste verses and choruses, dramatically reduce tempos, change key modality and, confusingly, roll a number of different songs into one. A fleeting rendition of Nico’s ‘These Days’ makes way for a particularly solemn ‘Song To Bobby’, whilst the rare, live-only ‘Real Life/Ordinary Life’ flows seamlessly into Jimmy Work’s ‘Making Believe’. Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ and Patsy Cline’s ‘She’s Got You’ are nestled amongst originals such as ‘The Poor and Needy’, ‘The Greatest’ and ‘Good Woman’ – the latter stretched within an inch of its life to become a haunting meander through heartbreak and inadequacy.

It’s difficult to remain unmoved by Marshall’s performance. She appears uneasy with the extent of her talent and fame, and restlessly shuffles around stage, continuously fine-tuning negotiations with band and crew members. She says less than ten words to the audience all evening. And her remarkably soulful voice carries the weight of experience. Marshall knows the blues. She imparts this knowledge in a performance woven around the hypnotic induction of a feeling of weariness and sedation, which becomes the double-edged sword on which her performance hinges.

Although the unwaveringly maudlin tone of the performance indicates Marshall’s rigidity and limitations, it also forms the basis of her incredible ability to evoke an emotional state in the listener that resonates with her own. If the audience finds this draining, one can only imagine what life must be like for Marshall.

Andrew Geeves

live reviews What we've been to see...

GRINDERMAN Enmore Theatre Friday January 28

RATATAT, CANYONS, ALPS The Manning Bar Friday January 28

I rate both bands, but the overarching disinterest from the 2cool4skool crowd and their music being too chilled-out for a Ratatat support meant that much of Alps’ and Canyons’ sets is spent pondering what the fuck two big perspex panels are doing on either side of the stage.

As if on cue, Ratatat emerge from the shadows, wielding their respective guitars like two Neanderthal hunters with their clubs, booming “We Are Here To Answer Your Stupid Question, Stupid BRAG Reviewer.”

A brooding guitar and keys intro is played to dim lights and footage of a deep blue ocean, projected onto both panels, and behind the stage. The visuals throughout the gig mimick the ebb and flow of Evan Mast and Mike Stroud’s music, and in a crescendo of guitar notes and synthesiser sweeps the dormant ocean morphs into a crashing wave. Their signature guitar-infused groovyelectro springs to life; it’s hard to believe that these eccentric sounds are coming from two stagnant stoners on stage. Suddenly Stroud spreads his two feet and slides effortlessly into Rock God Stance, an epic Tarzan silhouette glam-rocking out against the crashing ocean.

With only so much as a half-hearted “thankyou” from either dude splitting up the songs, the lack of crowd banter is justified by the amount of funk in Ratatat’s musical trunk.

‘Drugs’ and ‘Mirando’ are already excellent jams, but when visually aided by a sequence of eerie/hilarious human portraits and glitchy excerpts from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Predator, they became devastatingly brilliant mindfucks. Playing a host of songs from their most recent LP4 as well as a handful of songs from their previous efforts (notably ‘Seventeen Years’ and ‘Wildcat’), joints are lit left right and centre as people attempt to grasp the audio-visual kaleidoscope of perfectly choreographed colour and sound.

When you see Ratatat play live, you are actually ‘seeing’ them. The spectacular visual show is far more creative and ludicrous than any epileptic light show that the trigger-happy folks at a rave could produce, and any doubts about how the duo would keep a capacity Manning entertained with a catalogue of 95% instrumental songs are instantly quashed.

From demented storyteller to esteemed crooner, Nick Cave has never been reticent about evolving into something unrecognisable. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, he’s rarely strolled outside of unwavering critical appraisal, regardless of who he plied his twisted trade with. In his latest guise as Grinderman (alongside The Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis and latterday Bad Seeds Martin Casey and Jim Sclavunos) things have been somewhat different. A project to supersede The Bad Seeds, it was perceived variously by critics as juvenile or a vapid mid-life crisis in which Cave made his first real attempt at playing guitar, and dabbled in sex jokes rather than the complex confines of his murder ballads.

Tonight, however, the Grinderman conceit proves its mettle. Cave charges to the front of the stage, sings through an errant bra proffered by an audience member, and tears Warren Ellis to the ground - all with a relentless, sweatsoaked ferocity.

If this is a mid-life crisis, it's ok.

need to relax into the face he leans on for support. It’s not so far removed from the Bad Seeds, but it has never been done with this kind of restlessness and fury.

The Grinderman, whoever and whatever he is, is a face that revels in a series of dichotomies. He screeches in vain about Oprah Winfrey and MTV, while personifying the most revolting aspects of that industry.

He’s demented; finding his way to a woman’s bed by insulting her children, bemoaning his bad luck with women while leering in all the wrong places. It’s a very specific kind of hypocrisy, and it’s what feeds the out-and-out power of this band.

From its themes to its delivery, Grinderman is just as valuable as the labored poetry of The Bad Seeds. It may be more simple and less eloquent, but it’s because of this intentional devolution that it carries such authenticity as a perverted foray into lust, rage and bitterness; and there’s none who portray those traits so convincingly as the slicked hair and unbuttoned shirts of Cave, Casey, Ellis and Sclavunos.

Max Easton

I don’t think many people really appreciate how nerdy (in a good way) Ratatat are – probably because their music is so awesome to party to. The precision of matching every visual cue to their live musicianship is nothing short of astonishing.

The strength of Grinderman lies in the seriousness and pomposity that the band avoids. Ellis lies sprawled on the floor, screaming into a microphone not long after he crucifies himself with his violin bow.

Cave leers at the front-row, screeching his

Rachitha Seneviratne

OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER

:: TOM TRAMONTE (RATATAT AND

GRINDERMAN)

BRAG :: 397 :: 31:01:11 :: 39

g g guide gig g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

pick of the week Les Savy Fav

THURSDAY FEBRARY 10

JAZZ

Manning M i Bar, B Sydney University, Camperdown

Les Savy Fav (USA), Straight Arrows 8pm $38.25 - $45 (+ bf) MONDAY FEBRUARY 7 ROCK & POP

Dean Haitani Dee Why RSL, Scores Bar free 6.30pm Jenny & Johnny, The Laurels Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $55 (+ bf) 8pm Matt Jones The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Menomena (USA), Jinja Safari The Factory Theatre, Enmore $36.30 (+ bf) 8pm Monday Club Cock ‘N’ Bull Tavern, Bondi Junction 4pm Olivia Pipitone Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 7.30pm Open Mic Night Macquarie Arms Hotel, Windsor free 7pm Two Door Cinema Club (Ireland) Enmore Theatre $56.10 sold out 7.15pm Yeasayer (USA), Ghoul Metro Theatre, Sydney $55 (+ bf) 8pm

JAZZ

Open Mic & Jazz/Latin Jam Session: Daniel Falero, Pierre Della Putta, Phil Taig, Rinske Geerlings, Ed Rapo El Rocco (Bar Me), Potts Point free 7.15pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

DinkiDiAcoustic: SNEZ, Geoffro & Bones, Victoria Young, Graham Healy The Hive Bar, Erskineville free 6.30pm Songsalive!: Men With Day Jobs, Nikki Thorburn, Lissa, The Snakemen, Laura Beasant, Russel Neal The Basement, Circular Quay $15 8pm

Raval, Surry Hills 8pm JP O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Kym Campbell Dee Why RSL, Scores Bar free 6.30pm Luke Dixon Northies, Cronulla free 7.30pm Mike Bennett The Observer Hotel, The Rocks The Money Smokers, Rose of York, All Mankind The Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills 7.45pm $10 Nuts Bankstown Trotting Club free The Slowdowns Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm The Study: Portable Junk Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills free 7pm Uni Night Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 9pm

Songsalive!: Hugo Yap, April Sky, Helmet Uhlmann Kellys On King, Newtown free 7pm Songwriter Sessions Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills free 7.30pm

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 8 ROCK & POP

Adam Pringle Band Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Deerhunter (USA) Metro Theatre, Sydney $55 (+ bf) all ages 8pm Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30 Shane Flew Dee Why RSL, Scores Bar free 6.30pm Soup Groove Session Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills free 5.30pm Steve Tonge O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Stornoway, Otouto, The Bon Scotts Annandale Hotel $38 (+ bf) 8pm They Call Me Bruce Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Tuesday Night Live: T San Garis, Larissa McKay, Sam Smith Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Warpaint (USA), Richard In Your Mind Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $42 8pm

JAZZ

10 Guitar Project, Jeremy Rose Trio, Jackson Harrison 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8.30pm

Glenn Cardier & the Sideshow The Basement, Circular Quay 8pm James Valentine’s Supper Club: James Valentine Quartet Golden Sheaf Hotel, Double Bay free 7pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

The Imperial Bells Centennial Hall, Sydney Town Hall $35-$78 8pm

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 9 ROCK & POP

!!! (USA), World’s End Press, Super Melody Metro Theatre, Sydney $51.09 (+ bf) 8pm Andy Mammers Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Djanimals, Holy Balm Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $51 8pm Ben Finn Duo Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm Billy & I Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 6.30pm Deep Sea Arcade, Surf City (NZ) Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Foals (UK), Last Dinosaurs Enmore Theatre $61.10 7.15pm Iron Bar Hotel Brass Monkey, Cronulla free 8pm Jager Uprising: Harbinger, The Black Heist, Friends With Benefits, Blacklion Black Annandale Hotel $8 7.30pm Jordan Miller, Elle Harris, John Vella

Mark Isaacs Trio 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8.30pm Mitch Grainger The Basement, Circular Quay 8pm Unity Jazz Band Sydney Flying Squadron 18 Footer Sailing Club, Milsons Point $10 12.30pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Open Mic Night Coach and Horses Hotel, Randwick free 8pm Songsalive!: Scatterfly, Eddie Boyd, Russel Neal Blaxland Tavern free 6.30pm

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 10 ROCK & POP

Bear in Heaven (USA), The Antlers (USA), Sherlock’s Daughter Annandale Hotel $44 (+ bf) 8pm Belinda Carlisle (USA), Wa Wa Nee Selina’s, Coogee Bay Hotel $55 (+ bf) 8pm Chase The Sun, Cass Eager & the Velvet Rope, Claude Hay Vault 146, Windsor $15-$17 8pm Come Back To Earth, Killgirls, Mending Melissa, Lovers Jump Creek Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 8pm Damn That’s Hot: Harmonic Generator (France), The Howling Tongues, Red Fire Red The Lansdowne Hotel, Broadway free 8.30pm Dan Spillane Northies, Cronulla free 9.15 David Agius Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm David Goyen Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 7pm Deep Sea Arcade, Surf City, Step Panther Harp Hotel, Wollongong $12 Floating Me Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $15 8pm Heath Burdell Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 8.30pm Joe Cocker (UK), George Thorogood & The Destroyers (USA) Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $122.42$153.11 (+ bf) 8pm Joyride & The Accidents, Milan, DJ Murray Lake Tone, Surry Hills 8pm Les Savy Fav (USA), Straight Arrows

Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $38.25 (member)-$45 (+ bf) Local Natives (USA), Leader Cheetah, The Paper Scissors Metro Theatre, Sydney $48.70 7.30pm Mandi Jarry Green Park Hotel, Darlinghurst free 7pm Mark Sultan (Canada), Dead Farmers, The Nugs Goodgod Small Club, Sydney 8pm Michael McGlynn Greengate Hotel, Killara free 8pm Open Mic Mars Hill Cafe, Parramatta free 8pm Sam & Jamie Trio Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Sophie Hanlon, The Black Paintings, Phebe Starr Raval, Surry Hills $12.25 7pm Steve Edmonds Band Empire Hotel, Annandale free 7.30pm Steve Tonge The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm The Suspects Marble Bar, Sydney free 8.30pm Tony Williams Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm

JAZZ

Armandito y Su Trovason 505 Club, Surry Hills $10-$15 8.30pm Lionel Robinson Dee Why RSL Club free 7pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Songwriters & Open Mic: Dan Crestani, Taylor Hogan, Daniel Hopkins Narrabean Sands free 7.30pm Up Close and Personal: Heath Burdell The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 8.30pm

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 11 ROCK & POP

Armchair Travellers Club Rivers, Riverwood free 9pm Autumn Grey Lewisham Hotel $10 8pm Back to the 80s Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 8.30pm Ben Finn Adams Tavern, Blacktown free 8.15pm Black Diamond Heart Club Crows Nest Hotel free 11.15pm Blaze of Glory Taren Point Bowling Club free 9pm Blox, Gods of Rapture, The Wire, Beggars Orchestra Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills 8pm $12 Brothers Grim & The Blue

Murders, Gay Paris, Kira Puru & The Bruise The Vanguard, Newtown 8pm Brown Sugar Marble Bar, Sydney free 9.30pm Californication Pioneer Tavern, Penrith South free 9pm Carl Fidler Greengate Hotel, Killara free 8pm Chase The Sun, Cass Eager & the Velvet Rope, Claude Hay Notes Live, Enmore $17-$20 8pm Chris Connolly Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm Dan Lawrence, Dave Stevens The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Daniel Lissings Crows Nest Hotel free 6pm David Agius Parramatta RSL free 5pm Deep Sea Arcade, Surf City (NZ), Step Panther Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $15-$18 Dirty Sweet The Lewisham Livehouse Endless Summer Beach Party Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges (USA) Coogee Diggers 8pm For Our Hero, Morgan Joanel, Sunny Side Up Metro Theatre, The Lair, Sydney $20 all ages (+ bf) The Getaway Plan, Tonight Alive, Secrets in Scale Metro Theatre, Sydney $39.10 all ages 4pm, 8pm Hat Fitz & Cara Robinson Vault 146, Windsor 8pm The Hellves, The Waysmiths Hermann’s, Darlington free 8pm Hue Williams Gladstone Hotel, Dulwich Hill free 7.30pm I Exist, Phantoms Live at the Wall, Leichhardt all ages 6pm Jonny Rock Novotel Homebush, Homebush Bay free 5pm Josh McIvor O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 8pm The Killgirls Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor free 8.30pm Last Night: Grace Woodroofe, Fishing, Parades DJs, Randall Stagg, PhDJ, M.I.T., Fantomatique, Ben Lucid, Radar Radio DJs, Mizz Clarence, Dimes Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $10 8pm The Led Zeppelin Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 10pm The Lloyd Cole Small Ensemble Enmore Theatre $61.60 7pm Luke Dixon Macquarie Hotel, Liverpool free 4.30pm The Maristians Rag and Famish Hotel, North Sydney free 8.30pm

Local Natives

“Ooo, I may not drive a new mercedes / But i’ll chauffeur my girl, to the edge of the world / I may not wear a golden watch now / But I’ll be right on time, for a woman so fine” MAYER HAWTHORNE 40 :: BRAG :: 398 : 07:02:11

g g guide gig g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Mark Da Costa, Dan Spillane PJ Gallagher’s Parramatta free 8.30pm Mark Travers Castle Hill RSL Club free 9pm Matt Jones Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 9pm Mung, Wil Maisey Mars Hill Cafe, Parramatta free 9.30pm Nicky Kurta The Grand Hotel, Rockdale free 5,30pm Nightshift Guildford Hotel free 7pm Old Man River, Passenger, Daniel Lee Kendall Annandale Hotel $17-$22 (+ bf) 8pm Qynn Engadine Bowling Club free 8pm Rob Henry Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm The Rocks Markets by Moonlight: Justine Wahlin, Bobby Virtue The Rocks free 6pm Sam & Jamie Trio Kirribilli Hotel free 8pm Sax Bomb Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club, West Ryde free 8.30pm Shade Of Red Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm Skyscraper Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill free 8pm The Snowdroppers Brass Monkey, Cronulla $20 10.30pm Sophie Hanlon, The Black Paintings, Phebe Star Raval, Surry Hills $10 (+ bf) 7.30pm Tony Williams PJ Gallagher’s Drummoyne free 9pm Twilight at Taronga: Caroline O’Connor

Belinda Carlisle (USA) The Cube, Campbelltown $50 (member)-$55 7.15pm Ben Finn Duo Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 6.30pm Billy & I Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 7.30pm Chase The Sun, Cass Eager & the Velvet Rope, Claude Hay Brass Monkey, Cronulla $17$20 8pm Club Arak The Factory Theatre, Enmore 8pm Cutwing, Meniscus, Arc Icarus Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $12 (+ bf) 8pm Dave White Experience Crows Nest Hotel free 11.15pm David Agius Duo Penrith Panthers free 6pm Deep Sea Arcade, Surf City (New Zealand), The Ivys, Feeding Edgar Mona Vale Hotel $12-$15 (+ bf) 8pm Dirty Deeds – AC/DC Show Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown free-$5 9.30pm The Drunken Sailors, Bunt, Frank Rizzo, Sludge Buzzard, Brown Esky, Hong Kong, The Smiling Stiffs, Kill the Motive, Michael Crafter Manly Fisho’s 5pm Elvis Is Back Western Suburbs Leagues Club Campbelltown, Leumeah $23 (member)-$25 8pm Enormous Horns Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 10pm Gary Johns PJ Gallagher’s Drummoyne free 9pm Goodnight Dynamite Brewhouse Marayong, Kings Park free 7.30pm

Taronga Zoo, Mosman $56.50 (child)–$68.50 (adult) all ages Usual Suspects Hawkesbury Hotel, Windsor free 7.45pm Williams Brothers Duo Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 8pm

JAZZ

SIMA: The Catholics The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (member)-$20 8.30pm Sun Chasers Collective 505 Club, Surry Hills $10-$15 8.30pm The Sun Records Story The Cube, Campbelltown $25 (member) 7.15pm Tina Petroni Workers Blacktown free 8pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie Well Connected Café, Glebe 8pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Ella Freestone Das Kaffeehaus, Manly free 7pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12 ROCK & POP

Alps, Bare Grillz, Mere Women, Unity Floors Black Wire, Annandale $5 7pm Andrew McMahon, Bobby Anderson, Leena Metro Theatre, Sydney $43.50 (+ bf) all ages 8pm Angie Dean Castle Hill RSL Club free 6.30pm

Heath Burdell Clovelly Hotel free 8pm Ian Blakeney Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm KAMI Celebrity Room, Blacktown RSL Club free 10pm Keith Armitage Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Love Parade, Nic Dalton & His Gloom Chasers, Robert F Cranny The Excelsior Hotel free 8pm Luke Dixon Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Luke Dixon Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 4pm Mark Travers PJ Gallagher’s Parramatta free 8pm Martin Mulholland Northies, Cronulla free 8.45pm Matt Jones Castle Hill RSL Club free 8pm Matt Seaberg, Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 5.40pm The Nevilles Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Nicky Kurta Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 2.30pm Open Day: NSW Railway Band The Powerhouse Discovery Centre, Castle Hill $5 (conc)-$8 11am Phil Simmons Workers Blacktown free 9pm The Priory Dolls, Dead Heads, Sleep Debt, Juan Cortez Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 Radio City Cats Marble Bar, Sydney free 10.30pm The Road Crew Peachtree Hotel, Penrith free

Deep Sea Arcade Royal Chant, The Ruminators Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Sarah Paton Greengate Hotel, Killara free 8pm The Seltic Sirens Auditorium, Workers Blacktown $5.50 (member)-$7.70 7.30pm Sister Jane, Dark Bells, The Kremlin Succession, The Maple Trail (solo) Annandale Hotel $10 7.30pm The Songsmiths Trio Kirribilli Hotel free 8pm Stormcellar Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle free 7.30pm Tinpan Orange, Roscoe James Irwin The Vanguard, Newtown $18 (+ bf)-$47 (dinner & show) 6.30pm Tongue and Groove Oatley Hotel free 8pm Tony Williams Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club, West Ryde free 8.30pm Twilight at Taronga: Caroline O’Connor Taronga Zoo, Mosman $56.50 (child)–$68.50 (adult) 7pm

Water Temples (USA), Grun, Skull Squadron, Cities of the Red Night Hermann’s, Darlington 8pm

JAZZ

Cafe of the Gate of Salvation - Queensland Flood Appeal: Cafe of the Gate of Salvation Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $28 7.30pm Lily Dior 505 Club, Surry Hills $10-$15 Now We’re Swingin’: Tom Burlinson Penrith Panthers, Evans Theatre $32.50 7.30pm Rick Price, Grace Knight North Sydney Leagues Club, Cammeray $30 8pm SIMA: Dereb the Ambassador The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (member)-$20 8.30pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Cafe Carnivale: Jorge Do Prado, My Sauce Good Zenith Theatre, Chatswood $22 (member)-$26 8pm

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BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 41

g g guide g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Cloudstreet, Fergusson Elliott, Ella Freestone Das Kaffeehaus, Manly $10$15 7.30pm Cool Room Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill free 9pm Lawrence Baker The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Songsalive!: James Devitt Belrose Bowling Club free 7pm Songwriters & Open Mic: Laurie McKern, Tanya O’Gorman, Dan Crestani, Russell Neal Club Totem, Balgowlah Songwriters & Open Mic: Carolyn Woodorth Picton Bowling Club free 8pm Transylvaniacs, Cornerbrook Irish Gaelic Club, Surry Hills $12-$15 7.30pm Unplugged & Uncomplicated: True Vibe Nation, Ray Mann, DJ Skae, Sceptic & Dseeva, Nuzil Muzik, The Kumpnee CarriageWorks, Eveleigh free 12pm The Vandemonians Mars Hill Cafe, Parramatta free 9.30pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 13 ROCK & POP

Andy Mammers Duo Newport Arms Hotel free 3pm

Dan Spillane Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 1pm Dave White Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 4pm David Agius Mounties, Mount Pritchard free 2pm Deep Duo, Nicky Kurta Trio Northies, Cronulla free 2.30pm Deep Sea Arcade, Surf City (New Zealand), Step Panther Brass Monkey, Cronulla $12$15 (+ bf) 7pm Dollshay Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 4pm Fiona Leigh-Jones Harbord Beach Hotel free 6pm Heath Burdell, White Brothers Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 1pm Hook Elation, Friends of Man, Joel Leffler Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 5pm Mike Bennett, Rob Henry, Carl Fidler The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm Rock ‘N Bowl #3 Petersham Bowling Club $10 3pm Sleek Sunday Supper Sessions The Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction free 8pm Steve Edmonds Band Wickham Park Hotel, Islington free 5.30pm The Subterraneans Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 6pm

The Sun Records Story Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club, West Ryde $35 4.30pm Tim Pringle Wisemans Ferry Inn Hotel free 12pm

JAZZ

Blues Sunday: Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Cremorne free 7pm Jive Bombers Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith The Martini Club: Johnny Gleeson, Tom Kelly Goldfish, Kings Cross free 9pm Nova Tone The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney free 5pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Matt Jackson Pontoon, Darling Harbour free 2pm Renae Kearney Oatley Hotel free 1pm Songwriters & Open Mic: Russel Neal Avalon Beach RSL Club free 6.30pm Sunday Sounds The Apple Store, Sydney free 3pm

COUNTRY

50 Million Beers Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm Gleny Rae Virus & her Tamworth Playboys Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club free 4.30pm

gig picks

up all night out all week...

MONDAY FEBRUARY 7

Two Door Cinema Club

Menomena (USA), Jinja Safari The Factory Theatre, Enmore $36.30 (+ bf) 8pm Two Door Cinema Club (Ireland) Enmore Theatre $56.10 sold out 7.15pm Yeasayer (USA), Ghoul Metro Theatre, Sydney $55 (+ bf) 7:30pm

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 8 Deerhunter (USA) Metro Theatre, Sydney $55 (+ bf) all ages 8pm Warpaint (USA), Richard In Your Mind Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $42 8pm

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 9 !!! (USA), World’s End Press, Super Melody Metro Theatre, Sydney Chk Chk Chk

$51.09 (+ bf) 8pm Foals (UK), Last Dinosaurs Enmore Theatre $61.10 7.15pm The Money Smokers, Rose of York, All Mankind The Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills 7.45pm $10

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 10 Bear in Heaven (USA), The Antlers (USA), Sherlock’s Daughter Annandale Hotel $44 (+ bf) 8pm

Local Natives (USA), Leader Cheetah, The Paper Scissors Metro Theatre, Sydney $48.70 7.30pm

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 11 Deep Sea Arcade, Surf City (NZ), Step Panther Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $15-$18 Last Night: Grace Woodroofe, Fishing, Parades DJs, Randall Stagg, PSDJs & more Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $10 8pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12 Love Parade, Nic Dalton & His Gloom Chasers, Robert F Cranny The Excelsior Hotel free 8pm

Booking fee applies to all presale tickets. Presale tickets will always be cheaper than doorsales.

All events are 18+ unless noted as All Ages. Management reserves the right to refuse entry.

Please note a current ACCESS Card must be produced to receive USU Member’s Price.

42 :: BRAG :: 398 : 07:02:11

Sister Jane, Dark Bells, The Kremlin Succession, The Maple Trail (solo) Annandale Hotel $10 7.30pm

BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 43

club guide

send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week

Snob Scrilla

Faithless

MONDAY FEBRUARY 7

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12

Centennial Park

Good Vibrations

Faithless, Phoenix, Sasha, Nas, Damian Marley, Kelis, The Ting Tings, Ludacris, Erykah Badu, Friendly Fires, Miike Snow, Fake Blood, Rusko, Sidney Samson, Mike Posner, Aloe Blacc, Yolanda Be Cool, Koolism, Kill The Noise, Tim & Jean, FenechSoler, Adam Bozzetto, Agent 86, Ajax, Anna Lunoe, A-Tonez, Bag Raiders, The Bang Gang Deejays, Cassian, Club Junque, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Jeff Drake, Jinja Safari, Kid Kenobi, Nick Findlay, Nino Brown, Samrai, Slow Down Honey, Sosueme DJs, Spenda C, Thundamentals $144.80-$247.10 12pm

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Chinese New Year Chris Coucouvinis free 7pm Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills I Love 90s Grumpy Gramps, Jelly Wrestling free 7pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Mondays free

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 8 The Gaff, Darlinghurst Kid Finley, Johnny B free 8pm The Valve, Tempe Underground Tables: Ato, Myme, Gee Wiz free 6pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Pop Panic free Karaoke

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 9 Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Ewun (USA), Person3, MC D-Tech, Phantom (UK), Geeflux, Yayogi 8pm Coolabar, Sydney Latin Dance Party Coolabar DJs $10 9.30pm Home The Venue, Sydney Dance Aid The Aston Shuffle, The Potbelleez, Zoe Bawdi, Dangerous Dan, Grant Smillie, Sam La More, Tommy Trash, Carl Kennedy, Beni, Bass Kleph, Chris Arnott, Goodwill, Anna Lunoe, Hoops, Son Of Kick, Act Yo Age, Jono Fernandez, Tom Piper, Kobra Kai, Ember, Mr Wilson, Chris Wilson, Matt Nugent, MC Shureshock, Sarah Mcleod, Snob Scrilla, The Immigrant, Gabby, You Say What $30 7pm The Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction Anthony K free 8pm Wentworth Hotel, Homebush Uni Night: DJ Nicky M, Dream One free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall Glove Cats, Autoclaws, Pablo Calamari, Dither and Jitter, Wallace and Vomit, Manjazz free 8pm

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 10 Beach Road Hotel, Bondi The Camera Club Paste Up free 8pm Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Whip It Myth & Tropics, Dune Rats, The Rubens, Cunningpants, Nickles &

Dimes DJs, Coitus Interuptus $10 8pm Enmore Theatre De La Soul Is Dead De La Soul (USA), Prince Paul $55$95.10 7pm First Fleet Park, Circular Quay Channel [V]’s Good [V] brations Bag Raiders free all ages 3.30pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Teenage Kicks presents Propaganda DJ Dan (UK), Urby Free 8pm

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 11 Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill DJ Retro free 9pm Bar Europa, Sydney Illya free 8pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Neon Nights Cassian 8pm Candys Apartment Liquid Sky Sohda, Diskoriot, Sweet Distortion, Knocked Up Noise $10-$15 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Vice Versa, Doctor Werewolf, ALF, Lucian, Asylum, Rubio & Pop The Hatch $20-$25 10pm Civic Underground Swarm Plus +1 DJ Bold, DJ Devious, Matt Abstrax, Vic Zee, Mookie $15 10pm Cohibar, Sydney DJ Jeddy Rowland, DJ Matt Roberts, DJ Anders Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool Fuego K-Note & DreadJuan, Mac, Dennis, C-Major, The Empress MC Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills Last Night Grace Woodroofe, Fishing, Parades DJs, Randall Stagg, PhDJ, M.I.T., Fantomatique, Ben Lucid, Radar Radio DJs, Mizz Clarence, Dimes $10 8pm Home The Venue, Sydney Sublime Gareth Emery, Peewee Ferris, Scotty G $20$25 10pm Jacksons on George, Sydney DJ Michael Stewart free Ladylux, Potts Point Ladylux Fridays Ben Morris & Venuto, Mr Marcello, Cookie Dough, Luke Firth, We/Are, Ando $10 Le Panic, Kings Cross Box Social MYD, 3Hundreds, Sotiris, Jamie What, 14th Minute, Jordan F Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown DJ Michael free 8pm Oxford Art Factory Gallery Bar, Darlinghurst Phatchance, Coptic Soldier free 8pm Pontoon, Darling Harbour Nic Philips free 9pm The Rouge, Kings Cross Hollywood Gossip J Smoove, Axle, Deckhead, The Hump Day Project, Cunningpants free (guestlist)-$10 9.30pm

Settlement Bar, Sydney Spoilt Adrew Wowk, Andy Wright (UK), Brendan Clay 6pm Soho, Potts Point Soho Fridays Sting Bar, Cronulla Electro Sessions DJ Soda, JustMore DJs, Brosman, Knocked Up Noise, Matt Mandrell, Riggers free 8pm St James Hotel, Sydney Club Blink Club Blink DJs 8pm St Petersburg, St Peters Old Skool Junglism – Stepback Rikochet, Deltashelta, Garry Bynon, Highly Dubious $15 9pm Tank, Sydney G Wizard, Def Rok, Troy T, Eko, Lilo, Jayson, Losty, Ben Morris, Matt Nukewood, Charlie Brown, Oakes & Lennox, Venuto, Adrian M 9pm The Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction Mish, DJ Peej free 6pm Tone, Surry Hills I-F (Netherlands), TLR, Cold Crush DJs, Slow Blow, NHJ $23.30 9pm Tonic Lounge, Kings Cross Back to the Old School 11pm The Watershed Hotel, Sydney Club Miami Wentworth Hotel, Homebush Wentworth Weekend Warm Up Wentworth DJs free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM The Fiction, Johnny Rock and The Limits, Damn Terran, No Art DJs Walkie Talkie, Sammy K, Skully Boo, Sweetie, Gatsby, Swim Team, Glenn Be Trippin + more $10-$15

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12 Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Saturdays In The Rex DJ Micha free 8pm Candys Apartment Disco Disco Vengeance, Teez, Disco Volante, Boogie Monster, Boy Genius $10$20 8pm Centennial Park Good Vibrations Faithless, Phoenix, Sasha, Nas, Damian Marley, Kelis, The Ting Tings, Ludacris, Erykah Badu, Friendly Fires, Miike Snow, Fake Blood, Rusko, Sidney Samson, Mike Posner, Aloe Blacc, Yolanda Be Cool, Koolism, Kill The Noise, Tim & Jean, FenechSoler, Adam Bozzetto, Agent 86, Ajax, Anna Lunoe, A-Tonez, Bag Raiders, The Bang Gang Deejays, Cassian, Club Junque, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Jeff Drake, Jinja Safari, Kid Kenobi, Nick Findlay, Nino Brown, Samrai, Slow Down Honey, Sosueme DJs, Spenda C, Thundamentals $144.80$247.10 12pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Official Good Vibrations Afterparty Charlie May (UK), Tomas Hedberg (Swe), Jeff Drake, DJ Moto, Neon Stereo, Mattttt, Titty Tassles, King Lee, MC Adam Zee $15$25 9pm Cohibar, Sydney DJ Jeddy Rowland, DJ Anders Eleven Nightclub Atomic DJ Comp Finals DJ Buddha, Catzyez, The Saint, Evil McNasty, DJ Peter, DJ RaiZed, Cerberus, Smokin Joe Mekhael, Tony Why & Toddy Trix, DJ Bennett, Dex-Terity, X-Styles, It-Rock, Killa-B $10-$15 10pm

“Could it ever be on earth as it is in heaven?” – LOCAL NATIVES, METRO FEB 10 44 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

club guide

send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com Empire Hotel, Darlinghurst The Temple Alex K, Sunset Bros, Outsource, Rata, Steve Play, Andre Jay, Dk1, Wilz, Frantic, Benino G, Blinky, ScottyO, Nick Nova, Danny P, Rath free 9pm The Exchange Hotel, Oxford St Ghettodisco Hoodlmz, E Cats, Mailer Daemon, Yeah What!, Chris la Sek, Rigs & Rads, Evie, Jess Us, Marlon 9pm $10/$15 The Forbes Hotel, Sydney We Love Indie We Love Indie DJs $10 8pm Goodgod Small Club United Colours presents Mowgli (Italy),Kato, Wax Motif, Bad Ezzy, Chux $15+bf 10pm Hotel Chambers, Sydney Red Room Troy T, K-Note, Mac, Mike Champion free (guestlist)-$20 Ivy, Sydney Pure Ivy Saturdays Graham Cordery, Beth Yen, Tass, Charlie Brown $15 5pm Jacksons on George, Sydney DJ Michael Stewart free Ladylux, Potts Point Ladylux Saturdays Venuto, Yogi, Arty Groove $10-$20 Name This Bar, Darlinghurst Open House Rhythm Punkz, Ben Vickers, Carlos de Leche, Sonyta, Chris Luder Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown George B free 8pm Mansions Hotel, Darlinghurst New Born Dick Trevor, Basic, Raptor $20-$25 9.30pm Oxford Art Factory,

Darlinghurst Haezer (S.A.), Smacktown, Nadisko, Obey $28.20 9pm Pontoon, Darling Harbour Phil English, Nobby Grooves $10 8pm Phoenix Bar, Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst Phoenix Rising Dan Murphy, Johan Khoury, Mark Alsop The Rouge, Kings Cross Le Rouge Keli Hart, Coops, Dave Winnel $10 9pm St James Hotel, Sydney Trash Trash DJs 8pm Star City Casino Wharf Spice Afloat Midnight Cruise Butch, Vincenzo, Trus’me, Murat Kilic, Schwa, Garry Todd, Matttt & Tomass, Matt Aubusson, Trinity, Matt Weir, Nic Scali, Mitch Crosher, Sam Roberts The Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction Shifty free 7pm Tone, Surry Hills Cupid’s Playground Nobby, Kate Monroe 9pm The Watershed Hotel Watershed Presents Skybar The World Bar, Kings Cross Wham! Kid Kenobi, James Taylor, Ben Korbel, Pablo Calamari, Adam Bozzetto, Telefunken, Andy Webb, Boonie, Cassette, Moneyshot $20 8pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 13 Beach Road Hotel Rex Room, Bondi Beach The Sunday NiceUp! Cheap Fakes, Edseven, Mike Who &

Ben Korbel

Ability, Bentley free 6pm Cohibar, Sydney DJ Brynstar The Forbes Hotel, Sydney Church Of Techno Mitch Crosher, Kerry Wallace, Joey Kaz, Jey Tuppaea, Jaded, Shepz $5 9pm Home Terrace, Sydney Spice Afloat Official After Party Schwa free-$20 5am Penrith Panthers Sunsets On The Terrace 2 Faced free 2pm Phoenix Bar, Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst Loose Ends Matt Vaughan free 10pm The Rouge, Kings Cross Cheap Thrill$ free 8pm The Watershed Hotel, Sydney DJ Brynstar free The World Bar, Kings Cross Disco Punx free

club picks up all night out all week...

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 9

Home The Venue, Sydney Dance Aid The Aston Shuffle, The Potbelleez, Zoe Bawdi, Dangerous Dan, Grant Smillie, Sam La More, Tommy Trash, Carl Kennedy, Beni, Bass Kleph & Chris Arnott, Goodwill, Anna Lunoe, Hoops, Son Of Kick, Act Yo Age, Jono Fernandez, Tom Piper, Kobra Kai, Ember, Mr Wilson, Chris Wilson, Matt Nugent, MC Shureshock, Sarah Mcleod, Snob Scrilla, The Immigrant, Gabby, You Say What $20 (+bf) 7pm

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 10

Enmore Theatre De La Soul Is Dead De La Soul (USA), Prince Paul $63.80-$95.10 7pm

De La Soul

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 11 Oxford Art Factory Gallery Bar, Darlinghurst Phatchance, Coptic Soldier free 8pm

Tone, Surry Hills I-F (Netherlands), TLR, Cold Crush DJs, Slow Blow, Not Happy Jan $23.30 8pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12 Chinese Laundry, Sydney Official GVF Afterparty Charlie May (UK), Tomas Hedberg (Swe), Jeff Drake, DJ Moto, Neon Stereo, Mattttt, Titty Tassles, King Lee, MC Adam Zee $15-$25 9pm

Anna Lunoe

The Exchange Hotel, Oxford St Ghetto Disco Hoodlmz,

E Cats, Mailer Daemon, Yeah What!, Chris la Sek, Rigs & Rads, Evie, Jess Us, Marlon 9pm $10/$15

FROM 6 - 10PM

Goodgod Small Club United Colours presents Mowgli (Italy),Kato, Wax Motif, Bad Ezzy, Chux $15+bf 10pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Wham! Kid Kenobi, James Taylor, Ben Korbel, Pablo Calamari, Adam Bozzetto, Telefunken, Andy Webb, Boonie, Cassette, Moneyshot $20 8pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 13 Beach Road Hotel Rex Room, Bondi Beach The Sunday NiceUp! Cheap Fakes, Edseven, Mike Who & Ability, Bentley free 6pm

BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 45

snap

Deep Impressions

up all night out all week . . .

Underground Dance and Electronica with Chris Honnery

Paul Kalkbrenner

O

28:01:11

PICS :: AM

raggamuffin 2011

ver the past few years, Australia has steadily eradicated any lingering perceptions of itself as some sort of clubbing backwater. More and more of the ‘DJing deity’ – see Ricardo Villalobos, Michael Mayer, Loco Dice, Moodymann et al – have ventured Down Under, to the point where virtually all of the big guns have played here of late. A notable exception to this was Paul Kalkbrenner… but not anymore! On Saturday March 19, the German ‘stadium DJ’ will make his Sydney debut at Chinese Laundry.

Kalkbrenner has a distinct style, fusing guitary, almost ‘poppy’ interludes with a rolling, banging tech sound that really does set the dancefloor/stadium alight. I had the privilege of seeing Kalkbrenner absolutely slam it out at the 2009 Melt festival in Germany, and while the inside word may be that he has big tickets on himself, in terms of DJ prowess at least it is justified.

Perhaps Kalkbrenner’s lack of humility can be attributed to his starring role in 2008’s Berlin Calling, a feature film about a touring artist loosely based on Kalkbrenner, since only film stars outstrip DJs in terms of egocentrism. But enough of the cynicism – we have a superstar heading our way; a superstar in his own mind maybe, but also a bona fide superstar behind the decks and in the studio. With an accomplished remix CV comprising reworks of Moby, Michel Cleis and his brother Fritz to complement his soundtrack to Berlin Calling – which collected ‘big’ Kalkbrenner singles like ‘Sky and Sand’ – and an accomplished production catalogue (check out the Reworks LP if you fancy the sound of Agoria, Joris Voorn and Sascha Funke remixing Special K), this really is a ‘must attend’ gig. No ‘maybe attending’ business mademoiselles and monsieurs, this event is mandatory!

:: Raggamuffin 2011 :: Parramatta Park, Parramatta

mad racket: octave one

PICS :: TL

Mad Racket returns to its spiritual home of ye olde Marrickville Bowlo for the first time in 2011 with a salacious double bill of Tom Clark and Guido Schneider on Saturday March 5 – Mardi Gras night. Indeed that particular Saturday promises to be quite a night of (sexually indiscriminant) techno, with Loose Kaboose hosting a warehouse party headlined by Deepchild, and Chemistry offering some inner-city techno at Tone. All are worth considering, and really enthusiastic punters could do worse than to squeeze all three into their itinerary, but for now we’ll focus on Racket, a party that boasts its own sub heading; ‘Der Große Fantastische Berlin-Karneval-Partie’ (‘The Big Fantastic Berlin-Mardi Gras Party’). Schneider is a hugely respected German producer who has released on Poker Flat, Cadenza – ‘Albertino’ anyone?

– Tuning Spork and HighGrade, the label overseen by none other than Tom Clark.

Mr Clark has had tracks remixed by Paul Ritch, reworked the likes of Dirt Crew and Anthony Collins and is well acquainted with Sydney clubbers, having spun at Mad Racket and the Subsonic Music Festival on previous jaunts Down Under. Throw in the Racket residents doing their thing, and this promises to be eine sehr gute nacht.

29:01:11 :: Beck's Festival Bar, :: Hyde Park Barracks Museum

COLLIER :: ASHLEY MAR :: : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: JAY OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERS STEVENSON :: TOM TRAMONTE ICK PATR :: NA HAN ROU ETTE ROS :: DANIEL MUNNS :: WESLEY NEL

46 :: BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11

With all the focus on parties that are still a month off, it feels a little off not to give you the tip on this weekend. But fear not, as there’s a couple of more immediate options for those with a proclivity for 4/4 beats. On

LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12

Vincenzo, Trus’Me, Butch Spice Midnight Cruise

SATURDAY MARCH 5

Tom Clark, Guido Schneider Marrickville Bowling Club Loose Kaboose ft Deepchild Inner city Warehouse

SATURDAY MARCH 19 Paul Kalkbrenner Chinese Laundry

Saturday night HaHa Industries will put on their first party of 2011, at an as-yetundisclosed warehouse location – check online for specific details closer to the time and all will be revealed. HaHa residents Dean Dixon and Dave Fernandes will be spinning, as will the Loin Brothers’ Long John Saliva, Brut 33 and Henry Compton, with proceedings commencing at 9pm. The other option is the previously discussed Spice Afloat midnight cruise, which boasts the international triumvirate of Vincenzo, Trus’Me and Butch. Aside from the internationals, the boat party is also noteworthy as it represents a farewell set for Michal Schwa, a local DJ who has rocked many a party at Spice over the years and oversees the respected Beef Records imprint. Heading back to Europe after five years in Australia, this weekend marks a chance to send Schwa off in style.

Those who ‘dig his vibe’ ought also to seek out his latest After Hours compilation, which showcases material from Beef artists such as Pezzner, Alland Byallo, The Timewriter and Murat Kilic each serving up some deep and twisted house grooves.

It’s available through – you guessed it maestro! – Beef Records.

Deepchild

Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com.

Soul Sedation

Soul, Dub, Hip Hop & Bottom-heavy Beats with Tony Edwards

Aloe Blacc

This week: - Thurs 10th Soul Sedation goes live every Wednesday night on Bondi FM (88.0 or bondifm.com.au). Tune in 10pm 'til midnight to hear a deep and soulful selection of the tunes covered here, and plenty more that I don't have room for.

S

ydney dubstep club night Void moves to Club 77 from its home of Phoenix Bar, which has fallen under new volume restrictions that make it impossible for Void to make their enjoyable racket. It’s a real tough job running a venue on Oxford Street - the powers that be come at you from all angles. Soul Sedation wishes Void good luck in their new digs at 77 William St. Brownswood records have a new recruit from the UK: look out for the Gang Colours remix of the new Ghostpoet single ‘Cash & Carry Me Home’. There’s some amazing production there, especially on the synth tip.

Good Vibrations add Aloe Blacc to their line-up, which takes up some of the slack left by Cee Lo and Janelle Monae’s cancellations. Good move! Look out for the review of Blacc’s Beck's Bar appearance in the next issue of BRAG. Sydney hip hop crew Bingethinkers are getting ready to drop their debut album Where Are They Now, through local label LookUP records. There’s some good sounds and skills on display in the album’s promo video, which is doing the rounds online.

Soul singer Charles Bradley has released a new full-length album entitled No Time For Dreaming. Bradley charmed some Sydney funk and soul fans when he appeared with the Menahan St Band at the Gaelic Club in late 2009.

UK producer James Blake is making waves with his self-titled album of experimental electronica. It’s completely unique, heavily-processed audio, with

multiple modern genres rearing their head throughout the record. Weird at times, soulful at others, and clubby occasionally – but there’s no doubting that there’s something there. Definitely check it out.

Soul Sedation disco tune of the week goes out to Dutch production outfit K.I.D, and their groove ‘Don’t Stop’ from way back in ‘81. Disco is still the sound!

Scottish hip hop production outfit Capitol 1212 are well worth looking up. Soul Sedation has been rocking to their track ‘Good Feelin’ for the last week or so, a tune that features the Jungle Brothers’ Mike G and others on the mic. The Scots have also got some material out on a reggae tip, the best of which is the new tune ‘Don Man Sound’ featuring Tenor Fly. For those who enjoyed the UK funky sounds that Benji B was pushing at the Beck's Festival Bar on the January 28 – and I know all the rudebwoys and girls from London up the front sure did – there’s some more of that style coming to town. Roska and Lorn will play Tone on the February 26, bringing the dubstep, future beat, wonky and UK funky sounds no doubt, with supports from Kato and Prize.

Void and Niche Productions will be welcoming Mala & Coki to Sydney this April, jointly touring the DMZ (aka Digital Mystikz). The revered pair of UK producers will showcase their heavy future sounds from their DMZ club night, label of the same name, and of course their own productions on Friday April 8 at the OAF. Hopefully the sound in there is spot on for that night. Dubstep and beyond, should be proper heavy! Locals Mark Pritchard, Steve Spacek, Victim and Paul Fraser on support.

Everybody’s favourite hip hop crew, De La Soul, are in town for their Enmore Theatre appearance this Thursday night. They’ll be performing their classic 1991 album De La Soul Is Dead in its entirety. Sure to be worth leaving the house for. Soul Sedation will see you there!

ON THE ROAD

Joyride and The Accidents ft. Milan and Murray Lake

- Fri 11th -

I-F and DJ TLR Plus Simon Caldwell and Slow Blow

- Sat 12th -

Cupid’s Playground With Kate Monroe

THU FEB 10

SUN FEB 20

TUE MAR 15

www.tone.net.au

FRI FEB 18

SAT 26 FEB

WED MAR 16

facebook.com/tonesydney twitter.com/tonevenue

FEB 17 - 20

FRI APRIL 8

De La Soul, Prince Paul Enmore Theatre Kool & The Gang, Roy Ayers Enmore Theatre

SAT FEB 19

Mayer Hawthorne & The County Manning Bar

Roy Ayers The Basement Roska, Lorn Tone

Playground Weekender Wiseman’s Ferry

Dead Prez Oxford Art Factory

Horace Andy, Dub Asante Metro Theatre DMZ Oxford Art Factory

SUN FEB 27

Planet Asia, Copywrite Tone

16 Wentworh Avenue, Surry Hills NSW 2010 (02) 9287 6440

Send stuff for this column to tonyedwards001@gmail.com by 6pm Wednesdays. All pics to art@thebrag.com BRAG :: 398:: 07:02:11 :: 47

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benji b

PICS :: RR

up all night out all week . . .

P*A*S*H

PICS :: TT

26:01:11 :: Tone Venue :: 116 Wentworth Ave Surry Hills 9267 6440

falcona fridays

PICS :: PS

28:01:11 :: Qbar :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245

28:01:11 :: Kit & Kaboodle :: 33-35 Darlinghurst Rd Kings Cross 9368 0300

It’s called: Kool & The Gang and Roy Ayers It sounds: A lot more familiar than expected – K&TG are the most sampled band in the world!

Who’s spinning? The legendary Kool & The Gang AND Roy Ayers together for one massive funk/soul/disco royalt y double-bill.

Sell it to us: Two of the most prominent artists of the 70s (and onwards) are joining forces for a show the likes of which the Enmore Theatre has never seen before! Expect to dance and groov e along to all the hits including ‘Celebration,’ ‘Jungle Boogie’, ‘Ladie s Night’ and many, many more.

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: An amaz ing celebration of hits and good times.

Crowd specs: Anyone keen for a great night out.

Wallet damage: $98.40 Where: Enmore Theatre When: Friday February 18

48 :: BRAG :: 398: 07:02:11

wham

PICS :: DM

party profile

kool & the gang

29:01:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700 :: N BUI :: JAY COLLIER :: ASHLEY MAR : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: SUSA :: TOM TRAMONTE N ENSO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERS STEV ICK PATR :: A :: ROSETTE ROUHANN DANIEL MUNNS :: WESLEY NEL

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dust tones

PICS :: AM

up all night out all week . . .

21:01:11 :: Tone Venue :: 116 Wentworth Ave Surry Hills 9267 6440

teenage kicks feat mani 27:01:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

PICS :: WN AND :: RR

22:01:11 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex Street Sydney 82959958

It’s called: Loose Ends presents Hercules & Love Affair's album launch

It sounds like: Hercules & Love Affair! Plus loads of old-skool New York and Chicago house, and the choicest bumping disco all night Who’s playing? Loose Ends resident DJ legen d Matt Vaughan and friends.

Sell it to us: The only weekly Sunday night party in town worth its salt is throwing a special party in honour of the coolest gay band on the planet right now, with giveaways galore all night, cheapo drinks ‘til midnight, and music like you ain’t gonna hear anywhere else in town!

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: That outfi t made entirely out of shiny silver party hats.

Crowd specs: Cruisey gays and Sunday night dancers. Arty boys and beautiful girls.

Wallet damage: Totes free.

Where: Phoenix Bar, basement 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst When: Sunday February 13, 10pm-late.

mum

PICS :: DM

PICS :: AM

chinese laundry

party profile

hercules & love affair

28:01:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700 :: N BUI :: JAY COLLIER :: ASHLEY MAR : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: SUSA :: TOM TRAMONTE N ENSO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERS STEV ICK PATR :: A :: ROSETTE ROUHANN DANIEL MUNNS :: WESLEY NEL

BRAG :: 398 :: 07:02:11 :: 49

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up all night out all week . . .

live review What we've been to see...

BIG DAY OUT

Sydney Showground Wednesday January 26 The Big Day Out has been ground zero in Australia’s culture wars for many years now; regardless of the lineup, there will always be as many people trying to play down the racist/ nationalist/aggressive side of Australia’s split personality as those doing their best to embody it. I could go on about that for hours, but instead let me simply say this: when 50,000 people show up anywhere, there are going to be some fuckwits. That’s just maths.

Happily, the scorching heat this year sapped all the energy from the usual troublemakers. The poor metal kids look sad and defeated in their black, while many of the Kiss The Flag Brigade are already passed out from a combination of sunstroke/dehydration, and none of them show the least inclination to get up. And it’s only midday. My first stop is Sydney’s own Cameras, who’ve quickly become a ‘must see’ - and today, they’re sounding terrific. In light of the special occasion – it’s the band’s first BDO – they’ve enlisted two extra people to add to the usual four-piece, and the result is phenomenal. These guys have an exciting year ahead of them - I advise you to get on that, like, six months ago.

The Boiler Room looks amazing - there’s an actual ferris wheel in the middle of it – but all I’m really interested in is Die Antwoord. I’m here to try and suss out if it's all just an elaborate piss-take, but I end up caught up by it, despite it not really being my thing. They really go for it live, and the energy is tremendous.

I have to hurry off before too long, though, to see The Greenhornes.

Despite a miserably small crowd, their set is great fun. The singer is almost uniquely uncharismatic, but the band is so tight and the songs so good that it doesn’t really matter. When the keyboard dies mid-set they show their talent as musicians, re-writing every song on the fly to compensate.

Hopefully it won’t be another fifteen years until they come our way again.

It's still bloody hot, so I retreat to the Annandale Stage once more. I wasn’t really planning on seeing The HardOns, but I'm so glad I did. Three unassuming men in their early-forties wander onstage and then rock the shit out of it, screaming through a set of classic hardcore/punk with more energy than most bands half their age.

The crowd is a sight to behold, too, as middle-aged ex-punks rip off their t-shirts and hurl themselves around with real force. Rock and fucking roll.

As soon as John Butler Trio finish their master class in musicianship in the main arena, the crowd surges forward and begins to chant for Iggy Pop like wild animals baying for blood.

The man himself walks onstage, and it’s immediately apparent why he commands everybody’s attention. For a 63-year-old man (who looks twice his age) he has boundless energy, surging into the crowd a couple of times, beating his chest with his mic, even cutting himself in the intro to ‘Open Up And Bleed’. It’s truly an amazing show, and The Stooges (James Williamson, Scott Asheton and ex-Minuteman Mike Watt) give it everything they’ve got.

It may have been a little too big; but it’s testament to the enormity of the festival that even after missing highlights like LCD Soundsytem, Black Milk and Grinderman, I still feel as though I’ve had an huge day out.

AND AM

big day out 2011

PICS :: TL

I stick around for the start of Rammstein’s awesome power-metal pantomime, before heatstroke gets the better of me, and i'm forced to suddenly beat a retreat.

26:01:11 :: Sydney Showground :: Showground Rd Sydney Olympic Park

50 :: BRAG :: 398: 07:02:11

Hugh Robertson